Remote Work and Political Preferences: Evidence from U.S. Counties

We examine how trends in remote work vary by U.S. county-level characteristics. Using several data sources with various definitions of remote work, we show that 2016 presidential Democratic vote share is associated with an increase in remote work starting in 2020 and continuing through 2023. An increase in 2016 Democratic vote share of one standard deviation is related to an increase in the likelihood of remote work by 1-2 percentage points and the share of job postings that advertise a remote-work component by about 2 percentage points. These effects are not altered by differences in various COVID policies and outcomes or labor-market indicators. We hypothesize that differences in preferences for workplace flexibility that are correlated with local political tastes opened a gap in remote-work rates once the pandemic-induced “remote-work revolution” substantially increased individuals’ opportunities for working from home.