Professor Nick Bloom, Professor of Economics at Stanford University, gave the 2023 IFS Annual Lecture on "Does working from home have a future?"
The pandemic-era surge in working from home is one of the greatest changes to economic life in many decades. But will this last, or will managers force employees full-time back to the office? Professor Bloom discusses the latest data, trends and evidence on working from home, arguing while fully remote working is winding down, hybrid work with 2 or 3 days a week at home has become the new normal. He discusses how firms in the UK, US and globally are managing this, and why hybrid has become so dominant for professionals and managers. Finally, Bloom discusses some of impacts of working from home, including on housing prices, commuting patterns, spending patterns and even on mid-week golfing.
Nicholas (Nick) Bloom is the William Eberle Professor of Economics at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow of SIEPR, and the Co-Director of the Productivity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship program at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research focuses on management practices and uncertainty. He previously worked at the UK Treasury and McKinsey & Company. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the recipient of the Alfred Sloan Fellowship, the Bernacer Prize, the European Investment Bank Prize, the Frisch Medal, the Kauffman Medal and a National Science Foundation Career Award. He has a BA from Cambridge, an MPhil from Oxford, and a PhD from University College London.
00:00 - Introduction by Paul Johnson
2:35 - Nick Bloom's lecture
50:00 - Questions and answers
