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What makes a good job? Evidence from OECD countries

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Andrew E. Clark

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Abstract

Empirical labour economics largely considers that wages and hours of work are sufficient indicators of job quality. Using information on 14000 workers in 19 OECD countries it is shown that, first, workers actually say that wages and hours are amongst the least important characteristics of a job. Second, using information on 14 types of job outcomes, there is evidence of matching: workers who say that promotion is important have jobs with greater promotion opportunities, for example. Third, overall job satisfaction is strongly correlated with all of the job outcome variables, suggesting that it picks up a wide variety of only rarely-measured job characteristics. Fourth, jobs with better outcomes are held by women, older workers, and non-union workers (as typically found in job satisfaction analysis). Last, subjective evaluations of income and hours (considering one's income to be high, and wanting to change hours of work) have a strong significant impact on job satisfaction, even controlling for their objective counterparts.

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Paper provided by DELTA (Ecole normale supérieure) in its series DELTA Working Papers with number 2004-28.

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Date of creation: 2004
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Handle: RePEc:del:abcdef:2004-28

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  1. John S. Heywood & W. S. Siebert & Xiangdong Wei, 2002. "Worker sorting and job satisfaction: The case of union and government jobs," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 55(4), pages 595-609, July.
  2. Clark, Andrew E. & Oswald, Andrew J., 1996. "Satisfaction and comparison income," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 359-381, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Andrew E. Clark & Fabien Postel-Vinay, 2004. "Job security and job protection," DELTA Working Papers 2004-16, DELTA (Ecole normale supérieure). [Downloadable!]
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  4. David G. Blanchflower & Richard Freeman, 1997. "The attitudinal legacy of Communist labor relations," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 50(3), pages 438-459, April.
  5. Andrew Clark & Yannis Georgellis & Peter Sanfey, . "Job Satisfaction, Wage changes and Quits: Evidence from Germany," Economics and Finance Discussion Papers 98-06, Economics and Finance Section, School of Social Sciences, Brunel University.
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  6. Alois Stutzer & Bruno S. Frey, 2008. "Stress that Doesn't Pay: The Commuting Paradox," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 110(2), pages 339-366, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Richard B. Freeman, 1978. "Job Satisfaction as an Economic Variable," NBER Working Papers 0225, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Sousa-Poza, Alfonso & Sousa-Poza, Andres A, 2000. "Taking Another Look at the Gender/Job-Satisfaction Paradox," Kyklos, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 53(2), pages 135-52.
  9. Clark, Andrew E. & Oswald, Andrew J. & Warr, Peter B., 1994. "Is job satisfaction u-shaped in age ?," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Couverture Orange) 9407, CEPREMAP.
  10. Clark, Andrew E., 1997. "Job satisfaction and gender: Why are women so happy at work?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 341-372, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. George A. Akerlof & Andrew K. Rose & Janet L. Yellen, 1988. "Job Switching and Job Satisfaction in the U.S. Labor Market," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(1988-2), pages 495-594. [Downloadable!]
  12. Clark, Andrew E., 2001. "What really matters in a job? Hedonic measurement using quit data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 223-242, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Junankar, P. N. (Raja) & Mahuteau, Stéphane, 2004. "Do Migrants Get Good Jobs? New Migrant Settlement in Australia," IZA Discussion Papers 1434, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  2. Andrew E. Clark, 2005. "Your Money or Your Life: Changing Job Quality in OECD Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 1610, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  3. Thomas Cornelißen & Olaf Hübler, 2007. "Unobserved Individual and Firm Heterogeneity in Wage and Tenure Functions: Evidence from German Linked Employer-Employee Data," IZA Discussion Papers 2741, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  4. Cornelißen, Thomas, 2006. "Job characteristics as determinants of job satisfaction and labour mobility," Diskussionspapiere der Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Hannover dp-334, Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät. [Downloadable!]
  5. Robert D. Mohr & Cindy Zoghi, 2006. "Is Job Enrichment Really Enriching?," Working Papers 389, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. [Downloadable!]
  6. Nadia Steiber, 2008. ""How Many Hours Would you Want to Work a Week?": Job Quality and the Omitted Variables Bias in Labour Supply Models," SOEPpapers 121, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). [Downloadable!]
  7. Andrew E. Clark, 2009. "Work, jobs and well-being across the Millennium," PSE Working Papers 2009-02, PSE (Ecole normale supérieure). [Downloadable!]
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