Working from home in developing countries

We use worker-level data on the task content of jobs to measure the ability to work-from-home (WFH) in developing countries. We show that the ability to WFH is low in developing countries and document significant heterogeneity across and within occupations, and across worker characteristics. Our measure suggests that educated workers, wage employees and women have a higher ability to WFH. Using data from Brazil, Costa Rica and Peru, we show that our measure is predictive of actual WFH both in terms of overall levels and variation with occupation and individual characteristics, as well as employment outcomes. Our measure can thus be used to predict WFH outcomes in developing countries. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study utilizes worker-level data on job task content in developing countries to measure the ability to work-from-home, revealing low WFH ability in these countries but higher ability among educated, wage employees, and women. The measure is shown to predict actual WFH outcomes, including overall levels, variations across occupations and individual characteristics, and employment outcomes in Brazil, Costa Rica, and Peru.