As you trudged back to work this month, did you head to an office in a large urban centre? Or did you fire up your PC – or iPad – in a ski lodge, beach house or tranquil rural setting?
This matters not just for your own well-being, but for wider social and economic policy. More than a decade ago, Thomas Friedman, the US author and columnist, caused a stir by suggesting the internet was turning the world “flat”: by connecting everyone, new technologies were creating competition and opportunities across borders, enabling many jobs to migrate.
In some ways, this sounds very frightening to US policymakers: in recent months, for example, there has been endless hand-wringing about American jobs flocking to India or China in this “flat” world.