Research Quest Funds Distribution

Optimizing health ◊ $320,673

Achieving a just & equitable society ◊ $54,638

Enriching the human experience ◊ $93,688

Supporting sustainable energy ◊ $43,000 thor at Arizona State University and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas for extramural funding. The funds from the PeRQ award will help him develop this current project as a more relevant labor survey regarding remote work.

Blandin’s research involved a new labor market survey different from others. Standard government labor market surveys do not include questions about working from home, because it was not previously common, according to Blandin. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, Blandin stated around 15% of workdays were done from home. During the summer of 2020, work from home increased to around 40% of workdays.

“It looks more and more like a lot of the increase in work from home is going to remain,” Blandin said. “So that could have a lot of important and interesting implications that we want to understand.”

Blandin said he hopes his research will provide important information for future generations of researchers trying to understand the economic impacts of COVID-19.

“We’re seeing a once in a lifetime change in this relationship between a worker and their workplace,” Blandin said. “We want to take the first step in understanding all those spillover effects.”

Although undergraduate students are ineligible to apply for PeRQ awards themselves, there are potential opportunities to be mentored by the Quest Fund awardees, according to Hostetler. Students can also visit https://provost.vcu.edu/initiatives/urop/ for more research opportunities.