Shadows and Donuts: The Work‐From‐Home Revolution and The Performance of Cities
研究了居家办公如何改变通勤频率选择，发现大城市出现“甜甜圈效应”（郊区增长）而小城市出现“阴影效应”，且大城市因通勤负担减轻更多而获益更大，可能加剧大小城市间的经济分化。
ABSTRACT In this article, we set out the relationships between the behavioral and spatial responses to working from home. The analytical framework centres explicitly on the choice of commuting frequency as the key decision‐making variable that endogenously reshapes the relationships between other spatial and nonspatial variables as a result of the work‐from‐home revolution. We find that optimal commuting frequency is positively related to the opportunity costs of less‐than‐continuous face‐to‐face interaction and inversely related to commuting costs. As well as a “ donut effect” with growth in the suburbs and hinterlands around cities, our results also identify a “shadow effect” in smaller cities. The reason is that, somewhat counterintuitively, commuting frequency optimisation magnifies the benefits of working from home in larger cities because of a greater decrease in the burden of commuting. Our results imply enhanced productivity of larger cities over smaller cities, suggesting that the economic divergence between large cities and left‐behind places is likely to persist.