Smart-Working: Work Flexibility without Constraints

Marta Angelici and Paola Profeta

No 8165, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: Does removing the constraints of time and place of work increase the utility of workers and firms? We design a randomized experiment on a sample of workers in a large Italian company: workers are randomly divided into a treated group that engages in flexible space and time job (which we call “smart-working”) one day per week for 9 months and a control group that continues to work traditionally. By comparing the treated and control workers, we find causal evidence that the flexibility of smart-working increases the productivity of workers and improves their well-being and work-life balance. We also observe that the effects are stronger for women and that there are no significant spillover effects within workers of a team.

Keywords: randomized control trial; productivity; work-life balance; well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J22 J24 L20 M54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-eur, nep-exp, nep-hap, nep-hrm, nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-ore
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (88)

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Working Paper: Smart-working: Work Flexibility Without Constraints (2020)
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