DONDENA Seminar - Conchita D'Ambrosio

We exploit an exogenous reform regarding place of work for public-sector workers in Italy to establish the causal effect of a return-to-office (RTO) mandate on worker health and well-being. In nine waves of quarterly panel data there is first a significant fall in teleworking for those affected by the RTO mandate, who also spend more time outdoors, work fewer hours, and interact less with relatives and friends. The net effect of these lifestyle changes on a battery of health and well-being measures following the return to office work is insignificant. Returning to the office neither improves nor worsens health. 

Conchita D’Ambrosio was appointed Professor of Economics at the Université du Luxembourg in April 2013 as part of the FNR PEARL programme on socio-economic inequalities. Before joining the University of Luxembourg, Conchita D’Ambrosio was Associate Professor of Economics at the Università di Milano-Bicocca. She studied Economics at the Università Bocconi, Milan, and at New York University, from which latter she obtained her Ph.D. in 2000. 

Her research interests have revolved around the study of individual and social well-being and its determinants. Her research focus is both theoretical and applied. Her work provides theoretically-sound measures of various phenomena – such as economic insecurity, multidimensional poverty, relative deprivation, resilience, and social exclusion – that are becoming increasingly common in our societies. She also explores the impacts of various life events on measures of well-being via the use of panel and birth-cohort data. The traditional approach followed in the Social Sciences is here enriched with insights from Biology looking at variables related to DNA and DNA Methylation. 

She was Editor of the Review of Income and Wealth between 2008 and 2024. She joined the editorial board of the Journal of Economic Inequality in 2013. She has been Permanent Visiting Fellow of the Department of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) of DIW Berlin since 2002, and Research Professor of the same Department since 2012. She is Vice-president of the Scientific Council of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi in Turin. She is member of the Scientific Council of the Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, and of the Institute for Advanced Studies of the University of Luxembourg. Since 2013 she is Luxembourg Income Study Senior Scholar and Fellow of the Dondena Centre on Social Dynamics and Public Policy of Università Bocconi in Milan. She is also member of the SOEP Survey Committee and of the Sustainability Coordination and Expertise Group of the University of Luxembourg.