Tracy Hadden Loh, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington, DC-based think tank, says real estate plays a key role in determining a culture’s attitudes toward remote work. “The long-term sustainability of remote work is contingent on the housing conditions of workers,” she says. “So, in Asia, where many people live in conditions where there are far fewer square feet per member of the household, work from home is not viable or attractive.”