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.