Andra will present the following paper, available here.

Determinants and Consequences of Return to Office Policies (with Sean Flynn and Vasudha Nair)

Abstract: We study the return to office (RTO) policies of publicly-traded firms by handcollecting a dataset of policy announcements for the Russell 1000 firms. The amount of in-person work firms require varies significantly across industries and cities, and most firms allow some remote work. We then examine RTO policy choice in a model where firms trade off in-person productivity benefits with an in-person wage premium. Consistent with the model’s predictions, we find that the feasibility of remote work and office rents determine RTO policy. We find no significant stock market reaction to announcements, which may indicate a lack of consensus on optimal RTO policies.