Who can work from home? A remote working index for an emerging economy1

The health emergency caused by COVID-19 produced important changes in the way people relate and like they carry out their work activities. Thus, this paper analyzes the probability of carrying out work activities remotely by constructing the Remote Working Index (RWI) in Colombia for the year 2019, using data from 93,927 individuals employed. The above led not only to show the inequalities between regions and economic sectors, but also allowed to establish a social profile of the agents who are most likely to work from home. The results show that ethnic-racial minorities, women, people aged 60 and over and those ones belonging to the health-care contributory system are the least likely to carry out their remote work. Consequently, they are the ones who face the highest disadvantages in the labor market when it faces confinement environments. Our results allow us to profile the population that requires higher attention in environments that restrict work activity, while identifying the work activities most likely to be performed remotely. This consolidates a contribution to the emerging literature on remote work and focuses the discussion on the identification strategy of indicators from Household Surveys.