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Public Sector Employees: Risk Averse and Altruistic?

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Author Info
Buurman, Margaretha () (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Dur, Robert () (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
van den Bossche, Seth () (TNO Work and Employment)

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Abstract

We assess whether public sector employees have a stronger inclination to serve others and are more risk averse than employees in the private sector. A unique feature of our study is that we use revealed rather than stated preferences data. Respondents of a large-scale survey were offered a substantial reward and could choose between a widely redeemable gift certificate, a lottery ticket, or making a donation to a charity. Our analysis shows that public sector employees are significantly less likely to choose the risky option (lottery) and, at the start of their career, significantly more likely to choose the pro-social option (charity). However, when tenure increases, this difference in pro-social inclinations disappears and, later on, even reverses. Our results further suggest that quite a few public sector employees do not contribute to charity because they feel that they already contribute enough to society at work for too little pay.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 4401.

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Length: 25 pages
Date of creation: Sep 2009
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4401

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Related research
Keywords: public service motivation; risk aversion; revealed preferences data;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
H1 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government
J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
M52 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting - - Personnel Economics - - - Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects

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This page was last updated on 2009-11-23.


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