The privilege of working from home at the time of social distancing

The explosion of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing policy of social distancing undertaken by many countries have put the organisation of production and of the work process under unprecedented stress.1 Analyses of the pandemic’s impact on the labour market are now spurring (Coibion et al., 2020) scary projections in terms of the number of jobs lost and related income losses. The direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic are evident in many realms of the economy, from the organisation of production and global value chains, to patent systems and appropriability conditions in the pharmaceutical sector, to the provision of health as a public good, to the study of unconventional fiscal and monetary policies (Lucchese and Pianta, 2020). Additionally, the implications for the organisation of the workplace and the work process are going to be significant. Social distancing is expected to jeopardise business and employment opportunities in a labour market that is defined by strong inequalities and precarious jobs.