  We study the long- and short-term effects of telecommuting (TLC), staggered
work hours (SWH), and their combined scheme on peak-period congestion and
location patterns. In order to enable a unified comparison of the schemes'
long- and short-term effects, we develop a novel equilibrium analysis approach
that consistently synthesizes the long-term equilibrium (location and
percentage of telecommuting choice) and short-term equilibrium (preferred
arrival time and departure time choice). By exploiting their special
mathematical structures similar to optimal transport problems, we derive the
closed-form solution to the long- and short-term equilibrium while explicitly
considering their interaction. These closed-form solutions elucidate the
discrepancies between the effects of each scheme and uncover a paradoxical
finding: the introduction of SWH, in conjunction with TLC, may increase the
total commuting costs compared to the scenario with only TLC, without yielding
any improvement in worker utility.
