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Working from home and mental health: before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

    Research output: Working paper

    Abstract

    Robust evidence on working from home and mental health is lacking, with recent concerns it may blur work-home boundaries. Working from home was discretionary and less intensive in pre-pandemic years, while during the pandemic, it was often intensive and ‘mandated’. I estimate the relationship between working from home and mental health via fixed-effects and instrumental variable (IV) estimation. I find no evidence that working from home harmed mental health, on average, pre-pandemic, with IV estimates suggesting potentially improved health. Conversely, working from home may have deteriorated mental health during the pandemic, potentially due its ‘forced’, intensive nature during this time.
    Original languageEnglish
    Place of PublicationYork, UK
    PublisherUniversity of York
    Pages1-30
    Number of pages30
    Publication statusPublished - May 2023

    Publication series

    NameHEDG (Health Econometrics and Data Group) Working Papers
    No.WP 23/03

    Keywords

    • mental health
    • working from home
    • worker wellbeing
    • instrumental variable

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