An analysis of the determinants of job satisfaction when individuals’ baseline satisfaction levels may differ

A growing literature seeks to explain differences in individuals’ self-reported satisfaction with their jobs. The evidence so far has mainly been based on cross-sectional data and when panel data have been used, individual unobserved heterogeneity has been modelled as an ordered probit model with random effects. This article makes use of longitudinal data for Denmark, taken from the waves 1995–1999 of the European Community Household Panel, and estimates fixed effects ordered logit models using the estimation methods proposed by Ferrer-i-Carbonel and Frijters (2004) and Das and van Soest (1999). For comparison and testing purposes a random effects ordered probit is also estimated. Estimations are carried out separately on the samples of men and women for individuals’ overall satisfaction with the jobs they hold. We find that using the fixed effects approach (that clearly rejects the random effects specification), considerably reduces the number of key explanatory variables. The impact of central economic factors is the same as in previous studies, though. Moreover, the determinants of job satisfaction differ considerably between the genders, in particular once individual fixed effects are allowed for.     

The effects of merit pay on teacher job satisfaction

The purpose of this study is to determine if the existence of a district-level merit pay system has any effects on teacher job satisfaction. Using a large sample of public school teachers from the year 2007, the results of this study suggest that teachers who work in districts that use a merit pay system are no less satisfied with their jobs than are other teachers; these results are consistent for both an ordered probit model and a two-stage analysis. Although the effect of merit pay on overall job satisfaction was insignificant, teachers in merit pay districts were less enthusiastic, did not think teaching was important, and were more likely to leave for better pay. However, in examining a sample of teachers who worked only in merit pay districts, it was found that teachers who received merit pay were more satisfied overall with their jobs than were teachers who did not receive merit pay.     

Educational choice, wage determination, and rates of return to education in Taiwan

This paper estimates educational choice, wage determination, and the rate of return to education in Taiwan using Taiwan's Manpower Utilization Survey data of 1996. As education investment is a self-selection process, this paper adopts a two-stage estimation method. First, a polychotomous ordered probit model is used to estimate the education decision. Second, the wage equations of different educational attainments are estimated by incorporating the possible selection bias obtained in the probit model. Finally, rates of return on each education level are calculated from the estimation results.     

You can’t always get what you want: gender differences in job satisfaction of university graduates

Previous literature stressed on the gender differences in job satisfaction and the factors influencing the job satisfaction of men and women. Two rationales are usually provided for the finding that women tend to be relatively more satisfied with their jobs than men although disadvantaged in labour markets: first, women may have relatively lower expectations of career and income, and second, they may attach relatively less importance to extrinsic rewards than men. In order to analyse whether substantial gender differences exist already at the beginning of the career, we employ information of over 20 000 graduates collected through a large-scale survey of German university graduates who recently entered the labour market. We find that the job satisfaction of female graduates is on average slightly lower than the job satisfaction of male graduates, but our results do not point to substantial gender differences. In our sample of highly qualified individuals, men and women are very similar in what they want from their jobs and also in their perceptions of what they get. While our results point to substantial similarity of men and women in the early career stage, gender differences may emerge at later stages of the career life cycle.     

Non-pecuniary Advantages Versus Pecuniary Disadvantages; Job Satisfaction Among Male And Female Academics In Scottish Universities

This paper considers job satisfaction in the academic labour market drawing upon a particularly detailed data set of 900 academics from five traditional Scottish Universities. Recent studies have revealed that in the labour force as a whole women generally express themselves as more satisfied with their jobs than men. Our results show that reports of overall job satisfaction do not vary widely by gender. This result is explained through the nature of our dataset, limited as it is to a highly educated workforce, in which female workers are likely to have job expectations comparable to their male counterparts. Ordered probit analysis is used to analyse the determinants of an academic's overall satisfaction at work as well as satisfaction with promotion prospects, job security and salary. Comparison salary is found to be an important influence on academics' overall job satisfaction although evidence suggests that academics place a lower emphasis on pecuniary relative to non pecuniary aspects of work than other sectors of the workforce.     

Graduate employment: Does the type of higher education institution matter?

The paper analyses whether the type of institution from which students graduate has an impact on their unemployment propensity. It uses official data on the Portuguese higher education system, for 2018, at the program/institution level, which provides information on graduate unemployment, as well as demographic and socioeconomic background information. A fractional probit model on graduates’ propensity for unemployment is estimated. Results suggest that polytechnic graduates face higher unemployment propensity than university graduates, maintaining inequalities present in students’ previous trajectories. Policies targeting socioeconomic segregation need to address not only access to higher education but also the transition to the labor market.     

Student loans and the allocation of graduate jobs

Higher education is not just a costly signal of native talent but also a means of raising a person's ability to hold a graduate job (and at least a certain educational achievement is required to get one). Graduate jobs differentiated by quality are allocated to graduates differentiated by native talent and parental wealth through a tournament. Non‐graduates jobs pay a fixed wage to those who do not participate in the tournament. Assuming that credit is rationed, some poor school leavers will go straight into the non‐graduate labour market even if they are talented enough to get a higher education and participate in the tournament. Some others will buy the same amount of higher education and end up doing graduate jobs of the same quality as less talented but richer school leavers. We show that student loans improve job matching and bring educational investments closer to efficiency. If the size of the loan is not very large, some poor school leavers will still be liquidity‐constrained and thus buy the same amount of higher education as less talented but richer ones. In that case, the former will get a productivity bonus. But raising the size of the loan to such a level that nobody is liquidity‐constrained could be socially optimal only if social preferences were extremely egalitarian.     

Happily Ever After? A Study of Job Satisfaction in Australia

The present paper investigates issues of job satisfaction and gender. In particular, the finding that women are significantly happier in work than their male counterparts is examined. To shed light on this issue, smaller subgroups of the total sample are analysed and more subjective variables (in addition to more traditional objective variables) are incorporated. It is found that differences in reported job satisfaction are more pronounced when looking at individuals with lower levels of education in lower skilled jobs. The determinants of job satisfaction for men and women in this group are significantly different; this was not found to be the case when looking at higher skilled, higher educated individuals. Women in this latter group exhibit similar (i.e. lower) levels of satisfaction to their male counterparts. It is conjectured that this result is due to differences in expectations of work among men and women and also among women themselves.     

Job satisfaction,job match quality and labour supply decisions

This paper introduces job satisfaction into neoclassical theory of labour supply. This simple integration produces non-trivial results: job satisfaction is able to reduce disutility of labour, thus increasing labour supply; also, if job satisfaction is very high, labour could generate utility, while leisure could provide disutility. In this paper, job satisfaction, and thus job match quality, is specified in terms of appropriate collocation of the worker in the workplace; in short, the higher the matching between the investment in education and the task assigned in the workplace, the higher the job satisfaction. An empirical analysis substantiates the two main predictions of this paper, namely the key role of job satisfaction in time allocation and labour supply decisions and the plausibility of our view about job satisfaction.     

A Spoonful of Sugar: Privatization and Popular Support for Reform in the Czech Republic

We analyze the role of privatization in creating a constituency for economic reform, markets, and democratic institutions, focusing on the Czech Republic. Drawing on a 1996 survey, we examine the 1,459 respondents' opinions on reforms, economic policies and systems, the legitimacy of transition, and democratic values. Using ordered probit estimation, we find that receiving property through restitution is strongly associated with support for reform and markets. Concerning voucher privatization, we find positive effects for participants retaining shares, but little impact of participation alone. Our simulations suggest that policy designs have substantial consequences for citizens' support of reforms, markets, and democracy.     

Are women really that happy at work? Australian evidence on the ‘contented female’

This article investigates the apparent paradox of females possessing higher levels of job satisfaction compared to their male counterparts despite possessing worse employment outcomes. Postulating that the female workforce is heterogeneous by age, education and the presence of children, we create four groups; the aggregated, young and childless, young with children and the educated. The article finds statistical evidence of significant gender differences, though not uniformly so. Econometric results, however, paint a muddier picture, indicating that statistical results alone should not be used to categorically report incidences of gender differences in job satisfaction. Sample-selection bias results also evince sub-group heterogeneity and require further study. The determinants of job satisfaction vary between measures and sub-groups, though not necessarily so across gender. In sum, the article finds that the paradox does exhibit itself for the aggregated and young and childless sub-groups, but is largely absent for the young with children group. As well, there is a clear bifurcation in job satisfaction between genders for the educated sub-group. This suggests that employed females should not be viewed as a monolithic bloc in the labour force.     

Assessing the impact of different workplace flexibilities on workplace stress in the presence of varying degrees of job control

We apply probit and propensity score matching to 1667 respondents from the 2008 National Survey of the Changing Workforce to quantify how workers’ self-reported stress levels vary under two different workplace flexibilities and varying degrees of job control. The first workplace flexibility considered is the ability to easily take time off for personal and family matters; the second is the option of a compressed work week. Our findings suggest that the first flexibility correlates with lower stress reports regardless of job control level. The second flexibility, however, correlates with lower stress levels only for workers with low levels of job control. This suggests that a compressed work week does not reduce stress for workers that already have high levels of job control. The more general conclusion is that some flexibilities are substitutes for job control whereas other are not, assuming the larger goal is the reduction of workplace stress and the various maladies exacerbated by stress.     

I’m too clever for this job: a bivariate probit analysis on overeducation and job satisfaction in Australia

Using data from the first wave of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia data set, this article establishes an empirical relationship between overeducation and workplace satisfaction for Australian adult males in the labour force. In a departure from much of the existing literature, both univariate and bivariate probit models are used to account for potential unobserved heterogeneity. We find that estimates in the univariate probit models are positively biased for three of the six measures of workplace satisfaction studied. This suggests that consideration should be given to the use of bivariate models when studying the determinants of workplace satisfaction and overeducation. Results show, although levels of satisfaction remain high, that across all measures of workplace satisfaction overeducated workers are less satisfied compared to their nonovereducated counterparts. This intimates that satisfaction levels should be viewed from a relative, rather than an absolute perspective. ‘Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work’ Aristotle 384BC–322BC     

Does studying abroad enhance employability?

Over 200,000 European students study abroad under the Erasmus programme. It appears that studying abroad may impart skills which are helpful for professional careers after graduation. Approximately, 54% of European students report that participation in the Erasmus exchange programme helped them to obtain a first job; however, interestingly, those from Central and Eastern European countries report it much more often—in 73% of cases. The aim of this paper is to find out whether studying abroad enhances the employability of higher education graduates in Poland. Using the propensity score matching method and data from a nationwide tracer survey of Polish graduates, we find that Polish students who completed at least one semester of their studies abroad do not benefit in terms of a higher employment rate after graduation.     

Semi-parametric models for satisfaction with income

An overview is presented of some parametric and semi-parametric models, estimators, and specification tests that can be used to analyze ordered response variables. In particular, limited dependent variable models that generalize ordered probit are compared to regression models that generalize the linear model. These techniques are then applied to analyze how self-reported satisfaction with household income relates to household income, family composition, and other background variables. Data are drawn from the 1998 wave of the German Socio-Economic Panel. The results are used to estimate equivalence scales and the cost of children. We find that the standard ordered probit model is rejected, while some semi-parametric specifications survive specification tests against nonparametric alternatives. The estimated equivalence scales, however, are often similar for the parametric and semi-parametric specifications.JEL Classification: C14, C35, D12Correspondence to: Charles BellemareWe are grateful to an anonymous referee and to participants of a CeMMAP/ESG workshop at University College London and seminars at CentER (Tilburg University) and Humboldt University Berlin for useful comments.     

Interactions on Job and Employee Effort within Italian Social Cooperatives

The aim of this paper is to analyse, using a standard ordered probit model, the correlates of worker effort within Italian social cooperatives. The main assumption of the paper is that employee effort depends not only on standard variables that explain effort but also on employees’ interpersonal relationships on the job. The analysis adds a new piece of evidence to the extant literature on effort, i.e. the impact of on-the-job interpersonal relationships on effort. The results show that there exists a positive correlation between the quantity and quality of worker relations within the social enterprise with customers, volunteers, colleagues and superiors and effort.     

Returns to education in China: a meta-analysis

Within labour economics, returns to education is an area of focused research. Moreover, amongst studies looking at emerging economies, China is the most widely studied economy. While there is a general consensus that returns to education are positive, studies use various datasets and methodologies and consequently present varying estimates of returns to education. We perform a meta-analysis of these estimates of the returns to education in China, addressing issues of heterogeneity in the existing literature and examining whether variations in reported estimates can be explained by study characteristics such as dataset and estimation methods, among others. The meta-regression results show that variations in reported estimates can be accounted for by study characteristics such as data source, estimation method and sample period, among others. The results support the college premium hypothesis and reveal that the returns to education for college graduates are higher than those for other (lower) levels of education.     

基于尖点突变理论的知识型员工组织承诺建立—破坏的动力学分析

利用尖点突变理论来解释知识型员工组织承诺演化的动力学机制及其特征,把组织承诺作为状态变量,把能有效预测组织承诺的工作满意度和组织支持作为控制变量,针对武汉IT企业调研数据,利用cuspfit软件定量地拟合出了尖点突变模型。通过分析发现,工作满意度作为正则因子、组织支持作为分歧因子,共同影响组织承诺的突变机制:①组织承诺由建立到破坏的突变是源于工作满意度和组织支持变量穿过分歧集合时产生的自组织相变;②承诺一旦被破坏就很难重新建立起来,是源于这种突变机制的滞后效应;③当工作满意度和组织支持取值在分歧集合内部时,组织承诺演化均衡态的选择(建立或者破坏)取决于员工承诺的初始水平。     

农民工就业流动的工资效应研究——以南京市为例

将农民工的就业流动区分为同一城市内部的流动和不同城市之间的流动,分别从理论上讨论了两种情况对工资水平的影响机制;对相关的理论假设作了实证检验。在控制住相关变量的情况下,农民工的工资水平与其更换就业城市的次数之间存在着显著的正相关关系;农民工的工资水平与其在本地更换工作单位的次数之间成显著的负相关关系,而与在本单位工作时间的长短之间存在着显著的正相关关系。     

How important is the type of working contract for job satisfaction of agency workers?

Previous research finds that agency workers are less satisfied with their job than regular workers. This paper analyzes whether this difference can be explained by the duration of the working contract agency workers are employed on. The analysis leads to three results. First, agency workers’ contract type does not explain their lower job satisfaction. Second, agency workers on permanent contracts are significantly less satisfied with their job than regular workers on the same contract. Third, agency workers on fixed-term contracts do not differ in job satisfaction from regular workers on both fixed-term and permanent contracts. The difference in job satisfaction between permanently employed agency and regular workers can partly be explained by changes in the reference point. Overall, the results, however, lend support to the conclusion that agency workers on fixed-term contracts regard their employment as stepping stone while those on permanent contracts appear to be trapped in this type of employment.