Whose (misperceived) norms matter? Shifting norms of paternity leave take-up

2025-10-06

2025-12-19

Our primary outcomes are behavioral indicators of employees' interest in paternity leave and related workplace norms. These include:
1. Information-seeking behavior: whether respondents click on links to the institutional webpage on paternity leave and to a report on leave in Italy.
2. Willingness to pay (WTP) for information: (i) Incentivized WTP to learn actual take-up among employees similar to them (same region, firm size category, contract type); (ii) Hypothetical WTP to learn the "maximum acceptable" number of leave days according to different workplace agents (supervisors, managers, executives, colleagues).
3. Participation in information campaign: willingness to (costly) participate in a campaign about paternity leave, with choice of target group (employees/managers/executives, male/female, firm size, sector).

We also measure attitudinal outcomes capturing respondents' perceptions and beliefs about the barriers to paternity leave take-up:
1. Information: knowledge of PL entitlements (length, replacement rate, legal entitlement).
2. Career concerns: (i) Employee perceptions of whether leave-taking affects career progression; (ii) Manager agreement (via list experiment and direct questions) with the statement "Employees who take paternity leave have a lower chance of being promoted"; (iii) Second-order beliefs (e.g., managers' beliefs about employees' fears of career costs; employees' beliefs about peers' fears).
3. Social norms and stereotypes: attitudes toward whether paternity leave challenges traditional gender roles.
4. Organizational constraints: perceptions of whether replacing a worker on leave creates difficulties for the company.
5. Perceived peer and managerial support: employees' (incentivized) best guess of (i) paternity leave take-up among peers similar to them (treatment group 1) and (ii) support for leave among managers (treatment group 2).
6. Stated take-up intentions: employees' self-reported likelihood of using paternity leave.

Data will be collected through an online survey programmed and administered via the Bocconi-hosted Qualtrics platform by the research team. Participant recruitment and survey distribution will be managed by a survey company selected through a public tender process. The selected company has been chosen based on its demonstrated compliance with GDPR and relevant research data protection standards, and on the quality, size, and detailed profiling of its respondent panel. The survey company will not have access to the survey data, which will be stored and managed exclusively by the research team.

Participation is voluntary and anonymous. No identifying information will be collected. Incentives will be offered via lottery to encourage honest participation. The survey company will manage the distribution logistics.

The main sample will consist of male employees aged 20-45 employed in Italian private-sector companies (~1,500), complemented by a smaller sample of female employees (~300). Eligibility is restricted to participants currently in a relationship, thus excluding single, divorced, or widowed individuals. Stratification criteria include age (below/above 34), educational attainment (graduates vs. non-graduates), and geographic location of the workplace (by macro area). If possible, we will oversample participants with fixed-term contracts and those employed in firms based in Southern Italy, as paternity leave take-up is particularly low among these groups.

Respondents are randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups or to a (passive) control group. Treatments are at the individual level and consist of informational messages embedded within the survey. In particular, the survey for male employees includes two randomized treatments, providing information on: (T1) actual take-up among workers similar to the respondent (same region, firm size category, and contract type), and (T2) average support for PL among ~300 managers, based on responses collected in a separate prior survey. The control group (C) receives no additional information. The smaller complementary sample of female employees will receive no informational treatments and thus also serves as a control group.

Prior to circulating the employee survey, we will administer a separate survey targeting about 300 managers to collect information on their views of paternity leave. We target male and female managers aged 20-55, stratified by gender and educational attainment (graduates vs. non-graduates). This survey is uniform across manager, with no randomization involved, except for a list experiment that indirectly measures agreement with a statement related to paternity leave and career penalties (“Employees who take paternity leave have a lower chance of being promoted”), along with unrelated workplace items (such as teamwork, punctuality, and communication). Participation is voluntary and anonymous. The survey company will manage the distribution logistics.

At the beginning of the survey, all respondents answer a screening question about their role within the company. Based on their response, they are redirected to the corresponding manager or employee branch of the survey.

Randomization will be performed at the individual level (among survey participants) using the randomizer embedded in Qualtrics flow.

Individual level

No

N/A

The main sample will consist of male employees aged 20-45 employed in Italian private-sector companies (~1,500), and a smaller female employee sample (~300). We will also run a separate prior survey with around 300 managers to collect information on their support for PL.

In the male employee survey, individuals will be randomly assigned to a treatment arm as follows:
- A third of the subjects (~500) will be in the information treatment group 1 (T1) and shown the average take-up rate among male employees similar to them, i.e., employees working in companies in the same region and firm size category, and with the same contract type (fixed-term or open-ended);
- A third of the subjects (~500) will be in the information treatment group 2 (T2) and shown information about managers' average level of support for paternity leave take-up;
- A third of the subjects (~500) will be in the control group and given no information about managers' support for paternity leave or take-up rates among male employees.

Female employees (~500) will be given no information treatment.

Among managers (~300):
- Half of the subjects will be in the information treatment group of the list experiment (asked about possible career penalties over five different workplace behavior, including the sensitive statement concerning paternity leave);
- Half of the subjects will be in the control group (asked about possible career penalties over only four different workplace behavior, without including the sensitive statement concerning paternity leave).