Working Papers

The WNE Working Papers series has been published by the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw since 2008.

The WNE Working Papers series provides a fast, open channel for disseminating research conducted at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw. The papers hosted here are working versions (pre-prints) and may evolve as authors refine their analyses, incorporate feedback, or progress through formal peer-review. What you read is the current version released by the authors, timestamped and assigned DOI/ISSN identifiers to ensure precise citation and version tracking. Copyright remains with the authors, who may, at any time, upload a revised file or add a note directing readers to a later, peer-reviewed publication.

The Working Papers series accepts articles by research employees of the Faculty and publications from conferences organised at the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw. Articles should be original research papers which have not been previously published, on the subject of economics.

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Number of Results 37

WP(37/2026)531. Do non-financial incentives work better for women? Two classroom experiments on calibration

Authors: Amirkhanyan Hayk
This paper reports the results of two experiments exploring the effects of monetary and non-monetary incentives on overconfidence and underconfidence. It additionally explores the moderating effects of gender. The participants of both experiments are…

WP531. Do non-financial incentives work better for women? Two classroom experiments on calibration

This paper reports the results of two experiments exploring the effects of monetary and non-monetary incentives on overconfidence and underconfidence. It additionally explores the moderating effects of gender. The participants of both experiments are university students taking their academic tests. Right before the tests, they predict weather their score will be higher or lower than the average in their class group. Overplacement is defined as expecting a better-than-average score but actually getting a below-average score. Similarly, underplacement occurs when a subject expects a below-average score but ends up above the average. Half of the subjects are incentivized: some receive money and others a handmade gift conditional on predicting correctly. Experiment 1 is conducted weekly for nine tests and involves students of one course. Experiment 2 involves students of four different courses, and the grade predictions are made on the final exam only. While Experiment 2 shows no significant results, the main finding from Experiment 1 is that the handmade gift reduces the likelihood of overplacement and underplacement for women, making them significantly better calibrated than men. Experiment 1 also shows that overplacement, but not underplacement, is more likely when the stakes are high (midterm and final tests compared to the weekly quizzes). Finally, there is limited support for the Dunning-Kruger effect.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2026.37.531
Amirkhanyan Hayk
overconfidence overplacement underconfidence non-monetary incentives gender differences Dunning-Kruger effect

WP(26/2026)520. An Eye for an Eye – The Study of Negative Reciprocity. Evidence From a Game Show

Authors: Starzykowska Natalia
The proposed research is an attempt to analyse the tendency to take a revenge revealed by the participants in the television program "Ten to One" and its relationship with gender, education, and demographic variables of a player. Choices ma…

WP520. An Eye for an Eye – The Study of Negative Reciprocity. Evidence From a Game Show

The proposed research is an attempt to analyse the tendency to take a revenge revealed by the participants in the television program "Ten to One" and its relationship with gender, education, and demographic variables of a player. Choices made by participants consist of indication of a participant who will answer the next question. Since this reduces the ones probability of winning the episode, the feedback can be considered as a negative reciprocity or simply: revenge.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2026.26.520
Starzykowska Natalia
gender discrimination negative reciprocity reciprocity

WP(3/2026)497. A Growing Gender Divide? Gender-Role Attitudes Among Young Adults Across Nine World Regions Over Four Decades

Authors: Pavelea Alina, Matysiak Anna
Recent public discourse suggests a growing polarization between young men and women in gender-role attitudes. This research note evaluates this claim by examining long-term trends in gender-role attitudes among young adults (aged 20–29) across …

WP497. A Growing Gender Divide? Gender-Role Attitudes Among Young Adults Across Nine World Regions Over Four Decades

Recent public discourse suggests a growing polarization between young men and women in gender-role attitudes. This research note evaluates this claim by examining long-term trends in gender-role attitudes among young adults (aged 20–29) across nine world regions over four decades. Drawing on pooled data from the World Values Survey, the International Social Survey Programme, the European Values Study, and the European Social Survey, we track three dimensions of gender egalitarianism covering attitudes towards gender equality in the public sphere, maternal work–family compatibility attitudes and attitudes toward gender roles in the private sphere. The results do not support the notion of a generalized gender polarization, as divergence does not occur across all dimensions. Attitudes regarding women’s and mothers’ paid work have become more egalitarian, and gender differences have narrowed or remained modest across most regions. By contrast, gender gaps persist in attitudes towards men’s labour market primacy and fathers’ suitability for childcare, and in some regions have widened, partly driven by declining egalitarianism among young men. Thus, convergence in views on women’s and mothers’ employment has not been matched by a comparable shift in attitudes toward men’s roles, pointing to an uneven transformation of gender norms with potential demographic implications.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2026.3.497
Pavelea Alina, Matysiak Anna
gender divide gender gap gender-role attitudes young adults

WP(27/2025)490. Employers’ Discrimination against Fathers and Mothers Taking Parental Leave: Evidence from a Choice Experiment

Authors: Cukrowska-Torzewska Ewa, Matysiak Anna, Kasperska Agnieszka, Kaufman Gayle
This study provides causal evidence on the hiring and pay penalties associated with taking parental leave of varying lengths. We investigate how deviations from prevailing social norms, in the form of non-standard leave-taking behavior by mothers and…

WP490. Employers’ Discrimination against Fathers and Mothers Taking Parental Leave: Evidence from a Choice Experiment

This study provides causal evidence on the hiring and pay penalties associated with taking parental leave of varying lengths. We investigate how deviations from prevailing social norms, in the form of non-standard leave-taking behavior by mothers and fathers, affect their employment outcomes. We also compare the parental leave penalties with those linked to unemployment to disentangle the determinants of these penalties and to identify the mechanisms through which they operate. To this end, we conducted a discrete choice experiment with 997 managers, who evaluated hypothetical job candidates differing in the length of employment interruptions due to parental leave. Using a conditional logit model, we find that both mothers and fathers face disadvantages in hiring and remuneration when taking longer parental leave. Notably, fathers are penalized for taking any parental leave, though the penalties are more severe for longer leave. These poorer employability prospects stem from managers perceiving such fathers as less available for work. Meanwhile, mothers receive hiring and pay bonuses for taking shorter leaves, stemming from employer perceptions of such mothers as more available, competent, and motivated.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2025.27.490
Cukrowska-Torzewska Ewa, Matysiak Anna, Kasperska Agnieszka, Kaufman Gayle
parental leave family policies employment wages gender norms ideal worker norms

WP(17/2025)480. Career Penalties for Flexible Working: How Organizational Culture Shapes Managerial Decisions

Authors: Kasperska Agnieszka, Matysiak Anna, Cukrowska-Torzewska Ewa
This study explores how organizational factors influence managerial decision-making regarding the career advancement of employees working from home. Despite a large body of research on the new modes of working, a gap persists concerning the role of t…

WP480. Career Penalties for Flexible Working: How Organizational Culture Shapes Managerial Decisions

This study explores how organizational factors influence managerial decision-making regarding the career advancement of employees working from home. Despite a large body of research on the new modes of working, a gap persists concerning the role of the organizational context in shaping these dynamics. In this article, we investigate whether managers’ promotion and pay decisions depend on the employee's use of remote work and whether these decisions are moderated by the presence of the ideal worker norms (i.e. high work devotion and centrality) and family-friendly policies (childcare-related and flexible work options) in their work environments. We use data from a choice experiment, which included over 1,000 managers from the United Kingdom. The experiment was run in the second half of 2022, and therefore, this study provides post-pandemic evidence and represents the “new normal” settings. The findings indicate that employees who work fully remotely are less likely to be considered for promotion and a salary increase than on-site workers. This pattern is observed particularly in firms with more demanding organizational cultures, namely those with stronger ideal worker norms and/or fewer family-friendly policies. Importantly, both male and female remote workers experience career penalties, albeit in distinct ways, as both ideal worker norms and family-friendly policies appear important for men, whereas for women, it is primarily the availability of supportive policies that influences outcomes. The findings underscore the significant impact of organizational culture on managerial decision-making, with implications for both theory and practice.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2025.17.480
Kasperska Agnieszka, Matysiak Anna, Cukrowska-Torzewska Ewa
experiment gender promotion organizational culture work from home

WP(16/2025)479. Estimating causal effects of extended school closures on non-cognitive factors: evidence from TIMSS and PISA

Authors: Binkiewicz Marzena, Artur Pokropek
This study investigates the causal impact of prolonged school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic on non-cognitive predictors of mathematics achievement and the strength of their association with student performance. Drawing on data from TIMSS (201…

WP479. Estimating causal effects of extended school closures on non-cognitive factors: evidence from TIMSS and PISA

This study investigates the causal impact of prolonged school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic on non-cognitive predictors of mathematics achievement and the strength of their association with student performance. Drawing on data from TIMSS (2015, 2019, 2023) and PISA (2022), we apply difference-in-differences (DiD) models across two research designs: successive cross-sections of 4th-grade cohorts and a pseudo-panel following a cohort from primary to secondary school. Our findings indicate that, although school closures did not significantly affect the level of students’ self-beliefs, they did reduce the strength of the association between negative attitudes and achievement—particularly among girls and in OECD countries. The results highlight the nuanced effects of distance learning on mathematics outcomes, contributing to the literature on the role of affective-motivational factors in education.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2025.16.479
Binkiewicz Marzena, Artur Pokropek
Mathematics achievement non-cognitive factors distance learning school closures TIMSS PISA gender differences math anxiety self-efficacy

WP(15/2025)478. Beyond Usual Suspects: Revisiting Barriers to Childbearing Decisions in a Low Fertility Setting

Authors: Anna Kurowska, Matysiak Anna, Grabowska Magdalena
Fertility rates in developed countries have declined to historically low levels, yet the reasons remain incompletely understood. While economic insecurity, housing affordability, and gender inequality have been central to earlier research, recent att…

WP478. Beyond Usual Suspects: Revisiting Barriers to Childbearing Decisions in a Low Fertility Setting

Fertility rates in developed countries have declined to historically low levels, yet the reasons remain incompletely understood. While economic insecurity, housing affordability, and gender inequality have been central to earlier research, recent attention has shifted to climate change and reproductive rights. This study examines the relative importance of contextual constraints on childbearing intentions among young adults in Poland. Using a factorial survey (N = 1,337), we compare how employment stability, housing affordability, childcare availability, men’s domestic contributions, climate change, and abortion rights shape intentions     to have a first or second child. Results confirm the enduring salience of economic security for fertility intentions across gender and parenthood status. Reproductive autonomy is most influential for childless women and important for mothers and partnered men. Childcare and equitable domestic arrangements support women’s intentions but matter less for men. Climate concerns are less influential. Intentions of childless men appear less responsive overall.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2025.15.478
Anna Kurowska, Matysiak Anna, Grabowska Magdalena
fertility intentions factorial survey experiment economic insecurity reproductive autonomy gender equality childcare availability climate change

WP(13/2025)476. Automation, the changing task content of jobs, and marital plans in Czechia

Authors: Dominika Perdoch Sladká, Matysiak Anna
As labour-replacing technologies, such as industrial robots and AI-driven automats, alter the structure of labour demand, the task content of occupations has emerged as an increasingly important indicator of socioeconomic position. This study explore…

WP476. Automation, the changing task content of jobs, and marital plans in Czechia

As labour-replacing technologies, such as industrial robots and AI-driven automats, alter the structure of labour demand, the task content of occupations has emerged as an increasingly important indicator of socioeconomic position. This study explores how exposure to job automation influences short-term marital intentions, using data from 1,345 respondents in the Czech Household Panel Survey (2015–2019) and occupational measures derived from the European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations (ESCO) Database. Our findings reveal a gendered pattern: men employed in highly routine-intensive occupations—indicative of greater vulnerability to automation—are more likely to report no plans to marry. Conversely, women in similar jobs are more likely to express positive marital intentions. These results highlight how technological change not only alters labour market outcomes but also shapes demographic behaviours through the lens of gender norms. The study contributes to broader debates on the interplay between socioeconomic disadvantage and family formation, suggesting that automation may be contributing to a growing group of ‘non-marriageable’ men. As technological change continues to transform the labour markets, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence, the number of individuals at risk of both economic and relational marginalization may further expand.
 


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2025.13.476
Dominika Perdoch Sladká, Matysiak Anna
task content of jobs marital plans marriage gender roles Czechia

WP(8/2024)444. Work from Home and Perceptions of Career Prospects of Employees with Children

Authors: Kurowska Anna, Kasperska Agnieszka
This study explores how various work and family-related contexts moderated the link between work-from-home (WFH) and self-perceived changes to the career prospects among employees with children after over a year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue tha…

WP444. Work from Home and Perceptions of Career Prospects of Employees with Children

This study explores how various work and family-related contexts moderated the link between work-from-home (WFH) and self-perceived changes to the career prospects among employees with children after over a year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that the link between WFH and the perception of changes to one’s career prospects is likely to differ depending on gender, occupation, whether the employee has worked from home before the pandemic, how much time their children spent at home due to pandemic restrictions and the cohabiting status of the parent. We conducted fixed effects multinomial regression models using a unique multi-country dataset, including representative samples of parents with dependent children from Canada, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden, and the US. Employees with children who had prior experience with WFH before the pandemic were more likely to report improved career prospects than those who worked solely in the office. The positive effect of WFH for newcomers to the world of remote work was less unequivocal and varied based on occupation and gender. We also find that the presence of children at home and the cohabitation status substantially moderate the link between WFH and perceived changes to one's career prospects, with different implications based on the employee's gender. We fill the research gap by showing how fluid workers perceptions of career prospects depend on varying professional (prior experience with WFH and occupation) and personal (increased family demands) situations. This study also indicates the need for context-sensitive career management in organisations.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2024.8.444
Kurowska Anna, Kasperska Agnieszka
career prospects family gender work from home remote work

WP(28/2023)435. Mechanisms Underlying the Effects of Work From Home on Careers in the Post-Covid Context

Authors: Matysiak Anna, Kasperska Agnieszka, Cukrowska-Torzewska Ewa
This article explores how Work From Home (WFH) affects workers’ career progression in the post-pandemic context of the United Kingdom, elucidating the mechanisms that drive these outcomes. Using data from the discrete choice experiment fielded …

WP435. Mechanisms Underlying the Effects of Work From Home on Careers in the Post-Covid Context

This article explores how Work From Home (WFH) affects workers’ career progression in the post-pandemic context of the United Kingdom, elucidating the mechanisms that drive these outcomes. Using data from the discrete choice experiment fielded between July and December 2022 among 1,000 managers, we show that teleworkers, whether in hybrid or full-time WFH arrangements, face a disadvantageous evaluation by managers compared to their office-based counterparts. The adverse effect of hybrid teleworking is due to the fact that employers consider hybrid workers are less productive than onsite workers. Full-time teleworkers are penalized even if they display the same performance at work as onsite workers. We demonstrate this penalty to be driven by the fact that managers consider full-time teleworkers to be less committed to work than onsite workers. Consistently with past research, we also find that WFH affects workers’ careers differently depending on their gender and parental obligations and that managers’ assumptions about workers’ performance and commitment allow to explain at least some of these differences.


Matysiak Anna, Kasperska Agnieszka, Cukrowska-Torzewska Ewa
career experiment family gender promotion work from home