Assessing teleworking strategies for local development

Teleworking has risen to record levels since the COVID-19 outbreak. Beyond supporting business continuity during social distancing, it may contribute to multiple societal objectives in the future where a return to pre-pandemic levels of teleworking seems unlikely. Hence, these issues are becoming more prominent on policy agendas. Strategies that look to teleworking as a tool for local development have more chances to support their underlying objectives, if tailored to local conditions and grounded on evidence. This paper proposes a framework to monitor and assess teleworking practices, related policies and their influence on people, places and firms. It is based on a case study from the Autonomous Province of Trento, Italy.