Whether or not the option to work remotely increases firm labour productivity is theoretically ambiguous. We use a rich and representative sample of Portuguese firms, and within-firm variation in the policy of remote electronic access – a key prerequisite for remote work – over the period 2011–2016, to empirically assess the relationship between remote access and firm labour productivity. Based on estimations of models with firm-fixed effects, we find a significantly negative association, on average, between remote access and productivity. However, we also find a substantial degree of heterogeneity across different categories of firms, where the association between remote access and productivity is significantly positive for firms that undertake R&D activities. Our findings suggest that the possibility of working remotely, as proxied by the possibility of remote access, is more likely to be harmful for productivity in non-exporting, small firms that do not do R&D, and that employ a workforce with a below-average skill level.

远程工作的选择是否会提高企业的劳动生产率在理论上是模棱两可的。我们使用丰富且具有代表性的葡萄牙公司样本，以及 2011 年至 2016 年期间远程电子访问政策（远程工作的关键先决条件）的公司内部变化，以实证评估远程访问与公司劳动生产率之间的关系. 根据对具有公司固定效应的模型的估计，我们发现远程访问和生产力之间平均存在显着的负相关。然而，我们还发现不同类别的公司之间存在很大程度的异质性，其中远程访问和生产力之间的关联对从事研发活动的公司具有显着的积极意义。我们的研究结果表明，远程工作的可能性，