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.

Please send your paper by e-mail: ?X_+7JYskWv-Kf3hn9M^&]BH~*i]#[3HRr{5AdMH\z?}#WTFCV2C}=-uV 

Please send 2 files:

(1) the main text without the title of the article and the authors (DOC/DOCX file) and

(2) the title page including: the title of the paper, the authors and their affiliation (DOC/DOCX file).

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Number of Results 6

WP(35/2026)529. When Work Moves Home: Fertility Responses to Working from Home in Europe

Authors: Osiewalska Beata, Matysiak Anna
This study examines the role of working from home (WFH) in shaping fertility across Austria, France, and Poland. While WFH can enhance flexibility and facilitate work–family reconciliation, it may also blur boundaries and intensify work demands…

WP529. When Work Moves Home: Fertility Responses to Working from Home in Europe

This study examines the role of working from home (WFH) in shaping fertility across Austria, France, and Poland. While WFH can enhance flexibility and facilitate work–family reconciliation, it may also blur boundaries and intensify work demands, with ambiguous implications for childbearing. Using longitudinal Labour Force Survey (2006–2023), we estimate hazard models of first and subsequent births, distinguishing women’s and men’s on-site work, occasional and usual WFH, self-employment, and non-employment, as well as their couple-level configurations. The association between WFH and fertility is strongly context-, gender-, and parity-specific. For first births, women’s WFH is positively associated with entry into parenthood in France and Austria, but negatively in Poland, particularly when combined with temporary employment. For subsequent births, women’s WFH is linked to higher birth risks in France and Austria, whereas in Poland, this pattern appears only when she works from home and he works on-site. Men’s WFH shows little association with fertility. These findings highlight that WFH operates as both a resource and a strain: supportive policies and secure employment can turn WFH into a facilitator of family formation, whereas their absence may transform it into a source of constraint and inequality.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2026.35.529
Osiewalska Beata, Matysiak Anna
work from home flexible work fertility couples Europe

WP(18/2025)481. The Role of Working-From-Home for Maternal Employment Re-Entry after Childbirth

Authors: Kurowska Anna, Matysiak Anna, Osiewalska Beata
This study investigates how work-from-home (WFH) —by mothers and their male partners—shapes maternal employment re-entry after childbirth. Drawing on Conservation of Resources and Boundary Management theories, the study distinguishes betw…

WP481. The Role of Working-From-Home for Maternal Employment Re-Entry after Childbirth

This study investigates how work-from-home (WFH) —by mothers and their male partners—shapes maternal employment re-entry after childbirth. Drawing on Conservation of Resources and Boundary Management theories, the study distinguishes between WFH access and regular use. It hypothesizes that regular WFH use by mothers and their partners supports earlier and full-time maternal return to paid work, particularly among second-time mothers. The UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009–2019) is used to estimate discrete-time hazard models of return to paid work after first and second births, distinguishing between full-time and part-time re-entry. Among first-time mothers, both WFH access and regular use are associated with a greater likelihood of full-time re-entry, though not with overall return. Among second-time mothers, regular pre-birth WFH use significantly increases the likelihood of returning to paid work—regardless of hours—whereas access alone does not. No significant associations are found between male partners’ WFH and maternal employment outcomes.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2025.18.481
Kurowska Anna, Matysiak Anna, Osiewalska Beata
childbirth flexibility remote work return to work telework work from home United Kingdom

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(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

WP(16/2023)423. Managerial Preferences towards Employees Working from Home: Post-Pandemic Experimental Evidence

Authors: Kasperska Agnieszka, Matysiak Anna, Cukrowska-Torzewska Ewa
Work from home (WFH) has been a part of the professional landscape for over two decades, yet it was the COVID-19 pandemic that has substantially increased its prevalence. The impact of WFH on careers is rather ambiguous, and a question remains open a…

WP423. Managerial Preferences towards Employees Working from Home: Post-Pandemic Experimental Evidence

Work from home (WFH) has been a part of the professional landscape for over two decades, yet it was the COVID-19 pandemic that has substantially increased its prevalence. The impact of WFH on careers is rather ambiguous, and a question remains open about how this effect is manifested in the current times considering the recent extensive and widespread use of WFH during the pandemic. In an attempt to answer these questions, this article investigates whether managerial preferences for promotion, salary increase and training allowance depend on employee engagement in WFH. We also explore the heterogeneity of the effects of WFH on careers across different populations by taking into account the employee’s gender, parenthood status, frequency of WFH as well as the prevalence of WFH in the team. An online discrete choice experiment was run on a sample of over 1,000 managers from the United Kingdom. The experiment was conducted between July and December 2022, and thus after the extensive use of this working arrangement during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings indicate that employees who WFH are less likely to be considered for promotion, salary increase and training than on-site workers. The pay and promotion penalties for WFH are particularly true for men (both fathers and non-fathers) and childless women, but not mothers. We also find that employees operating in teams with a higher prevalence of WFH do not experience negative career effects when working from home. The findings underline the importance of individual factors and familiarisation as well as social acceptance of flexible working arrangements in their impact on careers.


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