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The International New York Times:
Looking at Productivity as a State of Mind

27 September 2014

Of course with newer forms of technology, showing up for work on time need not mean being physically at a given workplace. A study by the economists Nicholas Bloom, John Roberts and Zhichun Ying of Stanford and James Liang of Peking University looked at call center workers in China. In their experiment, some workers were randomly assigned to work at home, others worked in group call centers. The work habits of both groups were carefully monitored electronically, and the workers knew it. The researchers found that those working at home were 13 percent more productive than those in call centers.

This article was published by the International New York Times - The Upshot on September 27, 2014
Link to article here

Related publications
'Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment', Nicholas Bloom, James Liang, John Roberts and Zhichun Ying, Centre for Economic Performance Discussion Paper No.1194, March 2013
Working or shirking?, Nicholas Bloom, James Liang, John Roberts and Zhichun Jenny Ying. Article in CentrePiece Volume 17, Issue 3, Winter 2012

Related links
Nicholas Bloom webpage
Productivity and Innovation Programme webpage

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