Harvard Business School research continues to reveal the contours of a workforce changed by COVID-19. And yet, despite the technological advancements of the past five years, a digital divide persists.
Here are some things we learned this month, visualized in charts.
1. Many workers are lagging in digital literacy
In a study of 40 million Microsoft Windows devices across US households in more than 28,000 ZIP codes, a vast “digital divide” emerged, with people in rural areas significantly lagging behind cities in their use of computers, according to Raffaella Sadun and Shane Greenstein.
Tapping into Microsoft’s dataset of US households, the researchers found:
Rural areas significantly lagged behind cities in digital usage.
More digital usage in more densely-populated areas with more broadband access, higher incomes, and more education.
Less usage in areas with older populations, and more male and White residents.
2. Migrant-local collaborations benefit communities
Prithwiraj Choudhury and a collaborator held a two-day entrepreneurial boot camp as a field experiment. Among the 278 participants, the researchers paired some local residents with fellow locals, then paired other locals with migrants who came from all over the United States and as far away as Africa, the Middle East, and Japan.
The teams' proposals were comparable in terms of quality, novelty, and growth potential. However, compared to the teams made up entirely of local residents, the teams with locals mixed with migrants were more likely to address important social problems and help more people.
3. Many people would give up pay for remote work
Zoë Cullen and Christopher Stanton asked more than 2,000 workers if they would be willing to give up part of their salaries to keep their flexibility rather than return to the office five days a week or find a new job.
While more than half of workers surveyed wouldn't take a salary reduction, 40 percent said they would accept a pay cut of 5 percent or more. Another 9 percent of respondents would trade 20 percent or more of their salaries to avoid the office.
