Remote Work and Effort-Reward Imbalance

Remote work has expanded rapidly with digitalisation and the COVID-19 shock, yet evidence on its consequences for workers is mixed. This paper studies how working from home (WFH) affects the balance between job effort and rewards, using the Effort–Reward Imbalance (ERI) framework, and whether effects differ by personality. We combine SHARE Wave 9 data (2021–2022) for Europeans aged 50–64 with information on WFH from the SHARE Corona surveys (2020 and 2021). To address selection into telework, we estimate causal effects with a two-stage least squares strategy that instruments individual WFH status with an occupation-level index of technical teleworkability matched at the three-digit ISCO-08 level. Results show that WFH substantially reduces ERI, with the improvement driven mainly by a large decline in perceived effort and a smaller increase in perceived rewards. Benefits are heterogeneous: under-controlled individuals, characterised by lower emotional stability and more strained social interactions, experience larger reductions in ERI when working remotely, consistent with lower interpersonal demands. Highly conscientious workers also gain, plausibly because stronger self-regulation supports autonomous task management. The findings support more individualised telework policies in which personality information is used to tailor managerial support and prevent vulnerability, rather than to screen workers out of flexible arrangements.