American Economic Review: Insights
ISSN 2640-205X (Print) | ISSN 2640-2068 (Online)
Work from Home and Disability Employment
American Economic Review: Insights
(pp. 179–95)
Abstract
There has been a dramatic rise in disability employment since the pandemic, while work from home (WFH) has risen fourfold. This paper asks whether the two are causally related. Controlling for compositional changes and labor market tightness, a 1 percentage point increase in WFH increases full-time employment by 1.0 percent for individuals with a physical disability. The postpandemic increase in working from home explains 68-85 percent of the rise in full-time employment. Wage data suggest that WFH increased the supply of workers with a physical disability, likely by reducing commuting costs and enabling better control of working conditions.Citation
Bloom, Nicholas, Gordon B. Dahl, and Dan-Olof Rooth. 2026. "Work from Home and Disability Employment." American Economic Review: Insights 8 (2): 179–95. DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20240538Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I12 Health Behavior
- J14 Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-labor Market Discrimination
- J22 Time Allocation and Labor Supply
- J28 Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy
- J81 Labor Standards: Working Conditions