Is the COVID-19-driven surge in remote work temporary or permanent? To assess how the geography of work may evolve, we analyze the pre-pandemic status quo. Casual theorizing might suggest that workers with teleworkable jobs in the pre-pandemic era were more likely to live in the less dense, peripheral neighborhoods in their metropolitan area. Instead, we find that, for neighborhoods of almost all incomes, those with a greater share of teleworkable jobs were likely to be relatively high density. Potential explanations include the complementarity of reduced commuting time with urban amenities and the complementarity of telework with social interactions outside the home.

Working from Density