Brown Bag Seminar: Return-to-Office Mandate, Health and Well-being: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Abstract: We assess the causal effect of return-to-office (RTO) mandates on workers’ health and well-being, leveraging an exogenous shift in working conditions for public sector employees in Italy. Analyzing nine waves of quarterly panel data, we find that the likelihood to work from home for treated workers is notably reduced after the RTO mandate. When looking at daily time use, we observe an increase in days spent outside and a reduction in working hours. The RTO mandate does not impact any of the fifteen health and well-being outcomes. This null effect reflects a balance between positive and negative consequences of passing from work-from-home to in-office work.