Intrinsic Motivations of Public Sector Employees: Evidence for Germany
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Robert Dur
Abstract
We examine differences in altruism and laziness between public sector employees and private sector employees. Our theoretical model predicts that the likelihood of public sector employment increases with a worker’s altruism, and increases or decreases with a worker’s laziness depending on his altruism. Using questionnaire data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study, we find that public sector employees are significantly more altruistic and lazy than observationally equivalent private sector employees. A series of robustness checks show that these patterns are stronger among higher educated workers; that the sorting of altruistic people to the public sector takes place only within the caring industries; and that the difference in altruism is already present at the start of people’s career, while the difference in laziness is only present for employees with sufficiently long work experience.
© 2019 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Don’t Tax Me? Determinants of Individual Attitudes Toward Progressive Taxation
- Same Same But Different: Dialects and Trade
- The Costs of Power Interruptions in Germany: A Regional and Sectoral Analysis
- Rating Agencies – An Experimental Analysis of Their Remuneration Model
- Intrinsic Motivations of Public Sector Employees: Evidence for Germany
- The Price Impact of Lending Relationships
Articles in the same Issue
- Don’t Tax Me? Determinants of Individual Attitudes Toward Progressive Taxation
- Same Same But Different: Dialects and Trade
- The Costs of Power Interruptions in Germany: A Regional and Sectoral Analysis
- Rating Agencies – An Experimental Analysis of Their Remuneration Model
- Intrinsic Motivations of Public Sector Employees: Evidence for Germany
- The Price Impact of Lending Relationships
