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Exposure to remote work and probability of long-distance commuting: evidence from pandemic lockdowns

Johansson, Eleanor LU ; Nilsson, Pia ; Larsson, Johan P ; Naldi, Lucia LU and Westlund, Hans (2025) In CESIS Electronic Working Paper Series p.1-25
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate how the lockdown-induced exposure to remote work affected the likelihood of switching to longer commutes using a longitudinal full-population register of Swedish employees. We find that employees with little experience of longer commutes were more likely to start commuting longer if they had occupations with high potential for remote work. Examining heterogeneity across sectors, this is especially evident among high-skilled workers in sectors with low pre-existing shares of remote work and longer commutes. Our findings are important for understanding regional expansion and spatial extensions of labour markets in a world where more work can be done remotely.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Labour mobility, Commuting distance, Remote work, Knowledge-intensive sectors, Covid-19, R1, R3, J6, J2
in
CESIS Electronic Working Paper Series
issue
498
pages
1 - 25
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
9bb87d26-0a49-47df-97ff-0e216355f546
alternative location
https://static.sys.kth.se/itm/wp/cesis/cesiswp498.pdf
date added to LUP
2026-06-05 12:36:36
date last changed
2026-06-08 11:20:04
@misc{9bb87d26-0a49-47df-97ff-0e216355f546,
  abstract     = {{In this paper, we investigate how the lockdown-induced exposure to remote work affected the likelihood of switching to longer commutes using a longitudinal full-population register of Swedish employees. We find that employees with little experience of longer commutes were more likely to start commuting longer if they had occupations with high potential for remote work. Examining heterogeneity across sectors, this is especially evident among high-skilled workers in sectors with low pre-existing shares of remote work and longer commutes. Our findings are important for understanding regional expansion and spatial extensions of labour markets in a world where more work can be done remotely.}},
  author       = {{Johansson, Eleanor and Nilsson, Pia and Larsson, Johan P and Naldi, Lucia and Westlund, Hans}},
  keywords     = {{Labour mobility; Commuting distance; Remote work; Knowledge-intensive sectors; Covid-19; R1; R3; J6; J2}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{498}},
  pages        = {{1--25}},
  series       = {{CESIS Electronic Working Paper Series}},
  title        = {{Exposure to remote work and probability of long-distance commuting: evidence from pandemic lockdowns}},
  url          = {{https://static.sys.kth.se/itm/wp/cesis/cesiswp498.pdf}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}