Propensity to work remotely in the Bank of Italy: a behavioural analysis

This paper analyses the propensity to work remotely of the Bank of Italy's employees. The main innovation compared with other studies is that the propensity is derived from individual administrative data instead of survey-based data, which are affected by selection bias problems. Furthermore, the use of individual administrative data makes it possible to analyse organizational and managerial issues that are difficult to investigate otherwise. Employees facing longer commuting times, those with children and those in the younger age groups have a higher propensity to work remotely, confirming that remote working (RW) is an important pull factor for new workers. No significant gender differences were observed. Bosses’ propensity to work remotely affects the behaviour of their colleagues. In the onboarding period, new hires tend to work remotely less than their more established colleagues, but they rapidly align their behaviour with that of the other workers. The choices of the more established colleagues are not affected by the onboarding needs.