Demand-Driven Technical Change: Evidence from WFH Technologies

• Economics

COVID-19 brought a sharp, unanticipated increase in the usefulness and value of technologies that support work from home (WFH). To investigate how this shock influenced the direction of technical change, we examine the text in 5.6 million U.S. patent applications published from 2010 to 2026. The share of patent applications that advances technologies in support of WFH rose by about two thirds within three years after the pandemic struck and remains about 50% above pre-pandemic levels five years later. The lasting rise in the WFH share of new applications concentrates in telecommunications - especially video conferencing, speech recognition, and audio processing. It is driven overwhelmingly by US corporations rather than foreign assignees or universities. In short, we find evidence that a sudden, lasting rise in WFH redirected innovation to technologies that support it.