Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/282119 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Paper No. 427
Publisher: 
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München und Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Transregio 190 - Rationality and Competition, München und Berlin
Abstract: 
How can teams organize for productive online collaboration? The coronavirus pandemic has led to a large and persistent shift toward remote work. Using fine-grained data from the world's largest platform for open-source software development, we find that the pandemic reduced the productivity of previously co-located teams substantially, whereas similar teams with remote work experience remained resilient. While access to remote talent and experience are important for overall team success, our results highlight the crucial role of communication for productive online collaboration. We find suggestive evidence that, with their peers shifting to online work, remote workers become better integrated into their teams' communication. We conclude that while teams' performance may suffer from the shift to remote work, setting up systems for effective online communication can help mitigate productivity loss.
Subjects: 
gravity model
open source
knowledge workers
knowledge flows
remote work
online labor markets
COVID-19
JEL: 
J01
M54
O30
F14
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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