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Retaining the Thin Blue Line: What Shapes Workers' Willingness Not to Quit the Current Work Environment

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  • Martin Gächter
  • David A. Savage
  • Benno Torgler

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of police officersÕ willingness to quit their current department. For this purpose, we work with US survey data that covers a large set of police officers of the Baltimore Police Department in Maryland. Our results indicate that more effective cooperation between units, a higher trust in the work partner, a higher level of interactional justice and a higher level of work-life-balance reduces police officersÕ willingness to quit the department substantially. On the other hand, higher physical and psychological stress and the experience of traumatic events are not, ceteris paribus, correlated with the willingness to leave the department. It might be that police officers accept stress as an acceptable factor in their job description.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Gächter & David A. Savage & Benno Torgler, 2009. "Retaining the Thin Blue Line: What Shapes Workers' Willingness Not to Quit the Current Work Environment," CREMA Working Paper Series 2009-28, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    • Handle: RePEc:cra:wpaper:2009-28
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Willingness to Quit the Job; Turnover Rates: Job Satisfaction; Stress; Police Officers; Work-Life Balance; Fairness; Acceptance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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