Abstract：
Working from home (WFH) has been adopted as a key mitigation strategy in the COVID-19 pandemic; yet few research has studied its impact on pandemic outcomes. Using multiple sources of data including cellphone data and online survey during the pandemic, this study investigates the effect of WFH on intra-city health disparities during the COVID-19 pandemic in American cities. Pandemic data for zip code tabulation areas and cellphone mobility data for census block groups in New York City (NYC), Chicago, and Philadelphia are converted to census tract level, which are then merged with 2019 census data. WFH is measured with the proportion of workers who potentially can telework based on employment composition in census tracts and percentages of jobs in each industry that actually WFH during the pandemic. Results show that while infection and death rates are higher in NYC, intra-city disparities in pandemic outcomes are more pronounced in Philadelphia. Poisson regressions show a negative association between WFH and COVID-19 infection and death rates in NYC and Chicago, which is weakened by increased time spent at home during the pandemic and in minority neighborhoods (in NYC). In Philadelphia, WFH is barely relevant for infection rates but has a marginally positive association with death rates, which is also moderated by the time spent at home. This study demonstrates the relative effectiveness of WFH in mitigating pandemic outcomes and underscores the intersectionality between WFH and race/ethnicity and resident behaviors. It provides important policy implications for future pandemic mitigation.
摘要：
在家工作(WFH)已被采纳为COVID-19大流行的关键缓解策略；然而，很少有研究研究其对大流行结果的影响。在大流行期间使用多种数据来源，包括手机数据和在线调查，本研究调查了在美国城市COVID-19大流行期间，WFH对城市内健康差异的影响。纽约市（NYC）的邮政编码制表区域的大流行数据和人口普查街区组的手机移动数据，芝加哥,费城被转换成人口普查区，然后与2019年人口普查数据合并。WFH是根据人口普查区域的就业构成和大流行期间每个行业实际WFH的工作百分比，用可能可以远程工作的工人比例来衡量的。结果显示，尽管纽约市的感染率和死亡率较高，在费城，大流行结果的城市内部差异更为明显。泊松回归显示，纽约市和芝加哥的WFH和COVID-19感染与死亡率之间呈负相关，大流行期间在家里和少数民族社区（在纽约市）花费的时间增加，削弱了这一点。在费城,WFH与感染率几乎不相关，但与死亡率略有正相关，这也是通过在家里度过的时间来调节的。这项研究证明了WFH在减轻大流行结果方面的相对有效性，并强调了WFH与种族/民族和居民行为之间的交叉性。它为未来的大流行缓解提供了重要的政策影响。
