When Parents Work from Home

This paper estimates the causal effect of parental right to work from home (WfH) on children's educational attainment. Using administrative data from the Netherlands and variations in firm-specific WfH policies, which generate natural experiments, we find that children whose parents gain the right to WfH improve their scores on a high-stakes exam by 9% of a standard deviation. This results in a 4 percentage points upswing in qualifying for a general or academic track in secondary school. Additionally, using the labor force survey, we find that changes in WfH policies are associated with a 17 percentage points increase in WfH propensity, but no change in hours worked or income. These results highlight the large potential benefits of remote work in supporting families and their children.