Do remote workers deter neighborhood crime? Evidence from the rise of working from home

In this paper, we provide the first evidence on the effect of working from home (WFH) on crime. We combine monthly, geographically granular crime data with a neighborhood WFH measure to estimate the impact on burglary using a difference-in-differences design. We document four key findings. First, a one standard devi-ation increase in neighborhood WFH (9.5 percentage points) reduces burglary by 4%, an effect that persists through 2022. Second, WFH is one shock to daytime home occupancy, and our finding extends to the broader occupancy–burglary re-lationship. Third, our mechanism evidence supports the spatial search model we develop, in which both opportunity and eyes-on-the-street channels deter burglars. Fourth, combining a hedonic house price model with a triple-difference design, we value the aggregate welfare gain at £24.5bn, around 1% of 2022 UK GDP. This places the fall in burglary among the most important consequences of the WFH revolution.