Graduation Year

2025

Date of Submission

4-2025

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

Reader 1

Sarah Robinson

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the subsequent lockdowns and social distancing mandates, accelerated the shift to remote work. Now, as companies transition back to in-person operations, the discourse surrounding Return-to-Office (RTO) mandates have become a contentious component of corporate strategy. This thesis examines the effects of RTO mandates by analyzing changes in key financial metrics—such as revenue, expenses, net income margin, stock price—using these indicators as proxies to assess firm performance more broadly. The analysis focuses on technology and finance firms listed under the S&P 500 index; I combine self-collected data on RTO mandates with firm-level quarterly financial data from CapitalIQ from 2020 to 2025. A difference-in-differences framework with firm and quarter-year fixed effects is used to isolate the effect of RTO adoption on firm performance. This thesis finds that RTO mandates led to significant revenue and expense increases among tech firms. That suggests those companies were busier—and more active operationally—after they returned to the office. Finance firms, on the other hand, didn’t see any statistically significant changes in their financial performance after adopting RTO. That runs counter to expectations, given how strongly the finance sector pushed for in-person work early on. The findings on sectoral differences in RTO outcomes contribute to the growing literature on the evolving nature of work; it offers some timely insights for companies evaluating the future of the workplace strategy that is best aligned with their unique needs.

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This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

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