This Thursday, June 4th, at 4:30 p.m., the DRIE seminar “The impact of teleworking on household energy consumption” will take place. It will be held in the Foundations Seminar of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and will be presented by USC researcher Fernando de la Torre Cuevas and Kurt Katrena, director of the Centre of Economic Scenario Analysis and Research (CESAR).
Contents: Before the pandemic, the promotion of teleworking as a public policy was justified based on its positive environmental impacts and energy savings. Currently, the expansion of teleworking is suggested as a mechanism to reduce dependence on certain energy inputs—namely, oil and natural gas. In this article, we link a spatial equilibrium model with a multisectoral and multiregional macroeconomic model, calibrated for the Austrian economy. Teleworking impacts household energy consumption through three main channels: (i) reduced commuting, (ii) changes in consumption patterns, and (iii) alternative residential location choices. While the first channel unequivocally produces energy savings, the effects of the other two mechanisms are ambiguous. Changes in the magnitude, composition, and location of final demand in the model originate from the residential location decisions made by workers in response to the increased possibility of teleworking.
The results of this study indicate that teleworking modestly reduces household energy consumption while increasing national well-being. Reductions in the use of energy from fossil fuels, particularly oil, account for the majority of the impact.
If you cannot attend in person and would like to participate via Teams, you can request the meeting access details by emailing idega@usc.gal.
