How many jobs can be done at home? Not as many as you think!

COVID-19 has dramatically accelerated the uptake of work-from-home (WFH) practices worldwide. However, there is no consensus on the importance of this phenomenon for workers and firms. Unique administrative data on the universe of Italian workers make it possible to assess for the first time the actual diffusion of WFH across sectors, regions and rms. Our data show that 12% of workers have in fact worked from home at the peak of the pandemic in 2020, suggesting that existing studies overestimate the share of jobs that can be undertaken remotely by at least 50%. We also provide suggestive evidence that existing studies are unable to account for technological and cultural barriers that in practice prevent firms and workers from adopting WFH practices.