We carry out a difference-in-differences analysis of a real-time survey conducted as part of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) survey and show that teleworking had a negative average effect on life satisfaction over the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. This average effect hides considerable heterogeneity, reflecting gender-role asymmetries: lower life satisfaction is found only for unmarried men and for women with school-age children. The negative effect for women with school-age children disappears in 2021, suggesting adaptation to new constraints and/or the adoption of coping strategies.

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2 February 2024

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Journal of Population Economics 37(8) 2024

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DOI: 10.1007/s00148-024-00979-z

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-024-00979-z#citeas

This Journal article is published under the centre's Community Wellbeing programme.