This paper studies the impact of working from home (WFH) on work relations and public health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Combining administrative data on SARS-CoV-2 infections and short-time work registrations, firm- and employee-level surveys and cell phone tracking data on mobility patterns, we find that WFH effectively shields employees from short-time work, firms from COVID-19 distress and substantially reduces infection risks. Counties with a higher share of teleworkable jobs experience fewer short-time work registrations and less SARS-CoV-2 cases. At the firm level, an exogenous increase in the take-up of WFH reduces the probability of filing for short-time work by up to 72 p.p. and the probability of being very negatively affected by the crisis by up to 75 p.p. Health benefits of WFH appeared mostly in the early stage of the pandemic and became smaller once tight confinement rules were implemented. This effect was driven by lower initial mobility levels in counties with more teleworkable jobs and a subsequent convergence in traffic levels once confinement was implemented. Our results imply that confinement and incentivizing WFH are substitutive policies to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

本文研究了德国COVID-19大流行期间在家工作（WFH）对工作关系和公共卫生的影响。结合SARS-CoV-2感染的管理数据和短期工作注册，公司和员工级别的调查以及关于流动性模式的手机跟踪数据，我们发现WFH有效地保护了员工免受短期工作的侵害，使公司免受COVID- 19遇险，大大降低了感染风险。远程办公工作所占比例较高的县的短期工作登记较少，SARS-CoV-2案件较少。在公司层面，WFH占用量的外生增加将申请短期工作的可能性降低了72 pp，将受到危机非常不利影响的可能性降低了75 pp。WFH的健康益处主要出现在大流行的早期阶段，一旦实施严格的禁闭规则，其收益就会减少。造成这种影响的原因是，具有更多远程办公工作的县的初始流动性较低，并且一旦实施禁闭措施，随后的交通水平趋同。我们的结果表明，限制和激发WFH是减缓冠状病毒传播的替代政策。