Date of Award

2026

Abstract

This dissertation examines work-from-home (WFH) arrangements through three complementary lenses: occupational feasibility, worker preferences, and residential location choice. The first chapter develops a continuous tools-based measure of WFH potential using the Department of Labor's O*NET Tools and Technology Supplement, which documents the tools used in each occupation. By categorizing tools according to their consistency with remote work and aggregating to the occupation level, I construct a measure that closely aligns with existing classifications while offering finer-grained distinctions than the binary categorizations common in the literature. The tools-based measure agrees with a widely cited task-based measure for approximately 80% of occupations and identifies additional job characteristics that allow for more precise classification.The second chapter turns to the preferences of the next generation of workers, examining how valuations of WFH shift when additional job characteristics such as mentoring and monitoring are considered. Using a choice experiment survey of undergraduate students, I find that WFH is not uniformly perceived as an amenity: while most respondents value flexibility, fully remote work is considered a disamenity. Significant heterogeneity in WFH preferences persists after accounting for gender and college of study. Mentoring programs generate substantial positive effect on arrangement choice, and there is suggestive evidence that the availability of mentoring reduces the value workers place on WFH. The third chapter connects WFH preferences to residential location choice, addressing concerns that remote work will accelerate urban sprawl. If WFH and residential preferences are independent, remote work flexibility may instead enable residential sorting, allowing workers to better match existing preferences rather than relocate outward. Using a stated preference survey of 256 undergraduate students and seemingly unrelated regressions (SUR), I find that WFH preferences correlate with differential amenity valuations: individuals preferring 2 to 3 days per week of WFH show significantly lower willingness to pay for living without roommates (-44.40%, p<0.05) and outdoor recreation (-31.11%, p<0.10), while high-WFH individuals place less value on building amenities and walkability than their low-WFH counterparts. These interaction patterns are robust across alternative amenity specifications, WFH measurements, and demographic and location-preference subsamples. Taken together, these chapters characterize who can work from home, what workers are willing to pay for various WFH arrangements, and how WFH preferences interact with residential choice. The findings suggest heterogeneous housing preferences across WFH types, implying a need for greater housing diversity across neighborhood types to accommodate the varied residential sorting patterns that remote work enables.

Document Type

Dissertation

First Advisor

Robert D Mohr

Second Advisor

Reagan A Baughman

Third Advisor

Ju-Chin Huang

Department or Program

Economics

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

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