Teleworking and the Environment
Does working from home truly benefit the environment? Drawing on Austrian administrative data, this presentation examines how remote work impacts commuting habits, vehicle purchases, and air quality. Discover how fewer office trips lead to significant net drops in emissions and cleaner air—even as individual commute distances grow.
Guest: Omar Bamieh, Associate professor at the Institute for Economic Policies, Universidad Andrés Bello.
Date: November 13th
Time: 11:00- 12:15 pm
Location: B071 Jenkins Nanovic Halls
Abstract: We study the effects of work from home (WFH) on commuting and the environment. Using Austrian administrative data, which includes the annual number of days workers work from home, we calculate work from home potential for the full population. Exploiting the rise in remote work following the COVID-19 pandemic, we compare workers with high WFH potential to those with low WFH potential before and after 2020, in a difference-in-differences design. We find that WFH increases commuting distances. Despite this rebound effect, on net, WFH reduces yearly kilometers commuted by 713km (6.5%) for the average worker, because workers take fewer trips to the office. Among college-educated workers the average reduction is 2100km (16%). This implies a drop in CO2 emissions from commuting of approximately 0.066 tonnes per worker, and 0.29 tonnes among college-educated worker. In the absence of the rebound effect the reduction in commuting and emissions would have been 15-17% larger. Linking data on vehicle registrations at the district level, we further show that WFH reduces purchases of new cars and does not lead to an increase in used car registrations. Adding data on fine particulate matter concentrations at the municipal level, we find that air quality improved in municipalities with a high share of workers with remote work potential relative to municipalities with a lower share. We also find positive spillover effects of neighboring municipalities' remote work potential on the focal municipality's air quality, consistent with less frequent commuting as the main mechanism driving the beneficial effects of WFH on air quality.
The Advances in Sustainable Development seminar series features scholars working in a range of fields, organized under the broad theme of sustainable development, convening to critically engage the work of others. In conjunction with faculty working under the School’s Poverty Inequality & Marginalization and Sustainability & Environmental Justice research programs, the seminar series emphasizes quantitative approaches to the study of sustainable development, from a diverse cross-section of disciplines, while welcoming mixed methods perspectives.