Most workers were favorably surprised by their productivity in work from home (WFH) mode during the pandemic. Employer plans for WFH levels after the pandemic rise strongly with these individual-level productivity surprises. Planned WFH levels also rise with the cumulative stringency of...

Early non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) significantly reduced the death toll of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, there are vast differences in how quickly governments implemented NPIs. In this paper, we analyze the role of public attention, measured as the share of daily Google searches in a...