We use the data from a Banque de France survey, carried out among French companies about their use of telework in 2019 and during the first lockdown in the spring of 2020. Combining this with detailed information regarding their balance sheets and profit and loss accounts, we show that those that made more use of telework in 2019 were more productive on average and better withstood the crisis overall. They are also larger and relatively less capital-intensive, although they have relatively high fixed assets in the form of IT equipment and intangible assets when compared with other companies. The estimations show that a significant global increase in the use of telework in the long term could increase productivity by around 10%. The findings also reveal the non-linear effects of telework on productivity. Companies that were already practising telework in 2019 were more likely than others to want to increase this in the future and those that were looking to do so were more likely to be planning an increase in their IT investment, as well as a change of premises.
Antonin Bergeaud, Gilbert Cette and Simon Drapala
1 January 2023
Economie et Statistique 2023(539) , pp.73-89, 2023
DOI: 10.24187/ecostat.2023.539.2098
https://www.insee.fr/en/statistiques/6791190?sommaire=7647685
This work is published under POID and the CEP's Growth programme.