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Abstract:
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This thesis poses two central questions about the changing nature of work in an increasingly Internet dominated professional landscape. The first question is whether the Internet impacts the amount of work that employees undertake from non-traditional locations. Two logit models test the hypothesis that the Internet increases the amount of work undertaken in unconventional times and places. The second question posed in this thesis investigates the impact of the Internet in general, and e-mail specifically, on self-rated worker productivity. An ordered logit model is used to examine workers' opinions on e-mail's usefulness in the workplace. While broadband dispersion, as measured by the number of broadband providers in an individual's residential zip code, is the variable of interest, it rarely achieves statistical significance. Additionally, small, insignificant regression coefficients on broadband dispersion likely correlate with extremely small practical impacts of broadband build out. Various demographic, geographic and workplace characteristics do, however, impact an individual's likelihood to work from home, work additional hours, and rate e-mail as beneficial to productivity. These impacts, and their policy implications will explored further in this thesis. |