WORK FROM HOME, TEMPORAL AGGLOMERATION (DIS-)ECONOMIES, AND MORNING COMMUTE

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of work from home (WFH) on the temporal agglomeration (dis-) economies associated with the morning commute in cities. Specifically, we extend the equilibrium model by Takayama¹⁾ to a model including the effects of WFH, and analyze its equilibrium and social optimum both theoretically and numerically. We then show that (i) WFH would make work start times to be more clustered (inconsistent with staggered work hours); (ii) for the situation where the productivity of individual firms and workers improves due to the introduction of WFH, the social welfare can be lower than before.