Le travail à domicile : Quelles implications pour les pays en développement ?

In this article, we examine the feasibility and implications of working from home in developing countries. As a large number of countries have implemented social distancing policies, the share of employment which can be done at home will play a critical role in determining economic outcomes during t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Charles Gottlieb, Jan Grobovšek, Markus Poschke, Fernando Saltiel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Institut de Hautes Études Internationales et du Développement 2020-08-01
Series:Revue Internationale de Politique de Développement
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/poldev/3507
Description
Summary:In this article, we examine the feasibility and implications of working from home in developing countries. As a large number of countries have implemented social distancing policies, the share of employment which can be done at home will play a critical role in determining economic outcomes during the pandemic. We first show that the share of employment that can be done from home varies significantly with countries’ incomes: in urban areas, this share is only about 20% in poor countries, compared to close to 40% in rich ones. This result is largely driven by the prevalence of self-employed workers in low-income countries. We further show that educational attainment, formal employment status and household wealth are positively associated with the possibility of working from home, reflecting the vulnerability of various groups of workers. We remark on the importance of rapidly identifying vulnerable workers across countries to design adequate policies to combat the negative employment impacts of Covid-19.
ISSN:1663-9375
1663-9391