Telecommuting

Telecommuting

Abstract

This study examines what happens to city size when telecommuting occurs. It assumes that more telecommuting occurs when telecommuters' labor cost share increases and/or workers adopt the more favorable attitude toward working from home. The study shows that telecommuting produces opposing forces that regulate city size, one centralizing and other decentralizing urban activities. These forces are examined in the city where workers and firms are given option to freely mix working at office and at home, and city's land use is endogenously determined. A rise in productivity of an economy due to telecommunications technology could work to centralize urban activities, ...