IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp17468.html

Trusted from Home: Managerial Beliefs and Workers' Spatial Autonomy

Author

Listed:
  • Gill, Adam

    (Uppsala University)

  • Nordström Skans, Oskar

    (Uppsala University)

Abstract

A key difference between on-site and remote work is the reduction in direct managerial oversight when tasks are performed outside traditional office settings. We use survey data on manager trust—measured by the question "...do you think that most people would try to take advantage of you if they got the chance?"—and relate the answers to employees' work-from-home intensities. Our results show that the remote work intensity is higher in countries, regions, and regions-by-industries where managers have higher levels of trust. This association remains robust after controlling for other dimensions of societal trust and confounding factors such as occupation types, broadband access, and digital skills. Manager trust was strongly related to work-from-home levels before the pandemic, and the association became even stronger for occupations in the middle of the remote work distribution following the pandemic surge in work from home. Overall, our findings suggest that manager trust is a crucial prerequisite for high sustained levels of remote work.

Suggested Citation

  • Gill, Adam & Nordström Skans, Oskar, 2024. "Trusted from Home: Managerial Beliefs and Workers' Spatial Autonomy," IZA Discussion Papers 17468, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17468
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp17468.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dingel, Jonathan I. & Neiman, Brent, 2020. "How many jobs can be done at home?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    2. José María Barrero & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2023. "The Evolution of Work from Home," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 23-50, Fall.
    3. Lawrence F. Katz, 1986. "Efficiency Wage Theories: A Partial Evaluation," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1986, Volume 1, pages 235-290, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Nicholas Bloom & Ruobing Han & James Liang, 2024. "Hybrid working from home improves retention without damaging performance," Nature, Nature, vol. 630(8018), pages 920-925, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicholas Bloom & Gordon B. Dahl & Dan-Olof Rooth, 2024. "Work from Home and Disability Employment," NBER Working Papers 32943, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Artz, Benjamin & Siemers, Sarinda & Li, Tianfang, 2025. "Work-from-Home Desires in the Post-COVID Workplace: Managerial and Gender Heterogeneity," IZA Discussion Papers 18089, IZA Network @ LISER.
    3. Jiang, Mingyu & Yasui, Kengo & Yugami, Kazufumi, 2024. "Working from home, job tasks, and productivity," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(8).
    4. Steven J. Davis & Cevat Giray Aksoy & Jose Maria Barrero & Nicholas Bloom & Katelyn Cranney & Mathias Dolls & Pablo Zarate, 2026. "Work from Home and Fertility," NBER Working Papers 34963, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Christos A. Makridis, 2025. "The Allocation of Time and Remote Work," CESifo Working Paper Series 12363, CESifo.
    6. Bick, Alexander & Blandin, Adam & Mertens, Karel & Rubinton, Hannah, 2024. "Work from Home and Interstate Migration," CEPR Discussion Papers 19101, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Benjamin W. Cowan & Todd R. Jones, 2025. "Social Substitution? Time Use Responses to Increased Workplace Isolation," CESifo Working Paper Series 12117, CESifo.
    8. Adrjan, Pawel & Ciminelli, Gabriele & Judes, Alexandre & Koelle, Michael & Schwellnus, Cyrille & Sinclair, Tara M., 2025. "Working from home after COVID-19: Evidence from job postings in 20 countries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    9. Alexander Bick & Adam Blandin & Aidan Caplan & Tristan Caplan, 2025. "Measuring Trends in Work from Home: Evidence from Six U.S. Datasets," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 107(15), pages 1-23, October.
    10. Cowan, Benjamin & Jones, Todd R., 2025. "Social Substitution? Time Use Responses to Increased Workplace Isolation," IZA Discussion Papers 18112, IZA Network @ LISER.
    11. David R. Agrawal & Xinyu Chen, 2026. "State and Local Tax Policy in a Time of Telework," CESifo Working Paper Series 12422, CESifo.
    12. Nicole Nestoriak & David H. Oh, 2025. "What Makes Work from Home Work? Evidence on Telework and Worker Tasks," NBER Chapters, in: The Changing Nature of Work, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Jorck, Gerrit von & Börger, Tobias & Ghirardello, Linda & Meyerhoff, Jürgen & Praetorius, Barbara, 2025. "The impact of work arrangements on the choice to work from home: a discrete-continuous choice experiment," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 59, pages 1-029.
    14. Stefania Capecchi & Francesca Iorio & Nunzia Nappo, 2024. "Occupational Stress, Working from Home, and Job Sustainability: Another Gender Issue?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 175(3), pages 1193-1218, December.
    15. Walther, Sven, 2025. "The Effect of Virtual Communication Channels on Human Behavior: A Literature Review," MPRA Paper 125223, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Bietenbeck, Jan & Irmert, Natalie & Nilsson, Therese, 2024. "Individualism and Working from Home," IZA Discussion Papers 17102, IZA Network @ LISER.
    17. Gaetano Basso & Davide Dottori & Sara Formai, 2025. "Working from home and labour productivity: firm-level evidence," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1508, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    18. Yoon, Chungeun, 2026. "The direction of innovation and work from home," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(1).
    19. Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia & Victoria Vernon, 2025. "Remote work, wages, and hours worked in the United States," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(1), pages 1-49, March.
    20. Ketter, Laura & Morris, Todd & Yu, Lizi, 2025. "A New Equilibrium: COVID-19 Lockdowns and WFH Persistence," IZA Discussion Papers 17975, IZA Network @ LISER.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17468. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Mark Fallak (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.