Determinants and Consequences of Return to Office Policies: Insights from Sean Flynn, Andra C. Ghent, and Vasudha Nair Using CompStak Data

At CompStak, we are excited to see how our data contributes to groundbreaking research in commercial real estate, especially in understanding the evolving dynamics of office space demand.

“Determinants and Consequences of Return to Office Policies” by Sean Flynn, Andra C. Ghent, and Vasudha Nair examines the factors influencing return-to-office policies and the broader implications these policies have on the commercial real estate market.

The full abstract of the paper can be found below, offering a glimpse into the depth of research that leverages the precision and accuracy of CompStak data to assess market changes.

“We study the return to office (RTO) policies of publicly-traded firms by hand collecting and classifying announcements for the Russell 3000 firms. Most firms allow some remote work but few allow fully remote work. We then examine RTO policy choice in a model where firms trade off in-person productivity benefits with an in-person wage premium. Consistent with the model’s predictions, office rents in the firm’s headquarters city determine RTO policy. We also find that larger firms choose more stringent policies and firms with female CEOs choose laxer policies. Finally, we find no significant stock market reaction to policy announcements.”

Download the full paper here.