Remote Work, Firm Productivity, and the Urban Wage Premium after the Pandemic

Abstract

This review article synthesises the evidence on remote work and firm productivity accumulated since 2020, with attention to what generalises to middle-income labour markets. We survey 84 empirical studies and classify them by identification strategy, outcome measure, and sector.

Three regularities emerge. First, productivity effects are close to zero on average but widely dispersed across firms. Second, the dispersion is explained mainly by managerial practice rather than by technology. Third, almost no study in our sample uses data from Southeast Asia, which leaves the external validity of the literature genuinely open.