The productivity benefits of that added 12 months would, one study concluded, increase the Kenyan maize harvest by almost a quarter.

The report cites studies to back its assertion of outsize productivity benefits, but many economists are not convinced.

This productivity benefit tends to be inversely related to the fraction of an operator's day spent walking.

This comprehensively looked at the productivity benefits of using rail over air for Scotland to London business travel.

"If they can't bring that down, it would lessen some of the productivity benefits," he said.

The classic software management book Peopleware documents these productivity benefits extensively.

Ford's new wage put him in the position of rationing jobs, and increased wages did yield substantial productivity benefits and profits.

The computer maker now believes the productivity benefits of providing private space for each researcher far outweigh the added costs.

That rate of telework would also deliver a productivity benefit of between $1.4 billion and $1.9 billion a year.

However, one fundamental difference is that rural areas tend to be more distant from economic mass and the associated productivity benefits (or agglomeration economies) for businesses.