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From the 1980s U.S. cities have become increasingly different in their economic outcomes: workers' education, incomes, house prices, etc., a phenomenon known as the "Great Divergence." We investigate if the recent surge in work from home can upend it. To this end, we build a quantitative spatial model in which some workers can substitute on-site effort with work done from home. We quantify our framework to match the distribution of jobs and residents across 4,502 U.S. locations. Then we simulate a permanent increase in the attractiveness of telework that leads to greater adoption of hybrid and fully remote work. We find that broader access to jobs reduces wage inequality across residential locations, and heralds a partial reversal of the Great Divergence. These predictions are confirmed by early evidence in 2021 and 2022.
Presenter(s)
Andrii Parkhomenko, University of Southern California
Non-Presenting Authors
Matt Delventhal, CoreLogic
Spatial Implications of Telecommuting: The End of the Great Divergence?