Abstract

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, more firms than ever before have enabled their employees to work from home. Based on a unique establishment survey conducted in Germany, this project provides suggestive evidence concerning the effects of working from home (WFH) at different points in time during the pandemic and discusses implications for the future of work. We assess the potential of WFH in Germany to be 25%-30% of private-sector employees. On the firm side, we find that higher WFH use is positively related to business success during the crisis, with avoided personnel shortages and increased employee productivity being possible mechanisms. Larger firms in particular are open towards expanding their WFH offerings after the pandemic. However, working on site brings advantages firms will not want to sacrifice, pointing towards a hybrid model of work in the future.