Who Can Work From Home in Developing Countries?
In this paper, I examine the feasibility of working from home in developing countries. I take advantage of worker level data from the STEP survey, which collects comparable information on employment outcomes across ten countries. I use information on workers' tasks to define the feasibility of working from home following Dingel and Neiman (2020) Only 13% of workers in STEP countries could work from home, yet this share ranges from 5.5% in Ghana to 23% in Yunnan (China) The feasibility of working from home is positively correlated with highpaying occupations. 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. These relationships remain significant within narrowly defined occupations, yet exhibit heterogeneity across countries. I remark the importance of rapidly identifying vulnerable workers to design adequate policies to combat the negative employment impacts of COVID 19.