Local Labour Market Resilience: The Role of Digitalisation and Working From Home
研究德国疫情期间数字化资本和居家办公对地方劳动力市场韧性的影响，发现数字化资本每提高一个标准差，短时工作率平均降低1.5个百分点，且效应非线性，对数字化水平低的地区不利。
ABSTRACT This article shows that digital capital and working from home were essential for the resilience of local labour markets in the context of the COVID‐19 crisis in Germany. Employment responses differed widely across local labour markets, with differences in short‐time work rates of up to 30 percentage points at the beginning of the pandemic. Using recent advancements in the difference‐in‐differences approach with a continuous treatment, we find that digital capital potential higher by one standard deviation led to a short‐time work rate that was lower by 1.5 percentage points on average at the onset of the shock. The effect was nonlinear, disproportionately disadvantaging regions at the lower end of the digital capital distribution. We also find that working from home potential led to lower short‐time work, especially during the first lockdown period. However, digital capital smoothed the employment shock beyond the effect of remote work, extending into 2021. Moreover, local digital capital potential increased the adoption of remote work after the shock.