Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/229552 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 8734
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
The large cities in the US are the most expensive places to live. Paradoxically, this cost is disproportionately paid by workers who could work remotely, and live anywhere. The greater potential for remote work in large cities is mostly accounted for by their specialization in skill- and information-intensive service industries. We highlight that this specialization makes these cities vulnerable to remote work shocks. When high-skill workers begin to work from home or leave the city altogether, they withdraw spending from local consumer service industries that rely heavily on their demand. As a result, low-skill service workers in big cities bore most of the recent pandemic’s economic impact.
Subjects: 
remote work
high-skill services
technological change
JEL: 
O33
R11
R12
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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