Work‐from‐home productivity during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Evidence from Japan

This study examines the productivity of working from home (WFH) practices during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The results reveal that the mean WFH productivity relative to working at the usual workplace was about 60%–70%, and it was lower for employees and firms that started WFH practice only after the spread of the COVID‐19 pandemic. However, there was a large dispersion of WFH productivity, both by individual and firm characteristics. Highly educated and high‐wage employees tended to exhibit a small reduction in WFH productivity. The results obtained from the employee and employer surveys were generally consistent with each other.