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Where Does the Good Shepherd Go? Civic Virtue and Sorting into Public Sector Employment

Author

Listed:
  • Adam Ayaita
  • Filiz Gülal
  • Philip Yang

Abstract

Several studies have analyzed motives to work in the public versus private sector. However, research on prosocial motivation in the context of public sector employment has largely neglected civic virtue, the motive to contribute to society. This study considers civic virtue in addition to other possible motives, using a representative, longitudinal dataset of employees in Germany including 63,180 observations of 13,683 different individuals. We find that civic virtue relates positively to public sector employment beyond altruism, risk aversion, laziness and (low) financial motivation. The result holds within different branches and is explained by sorting into the sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam Ayaita & Filiz Gülal & Philip Yang, 2019. "Where Does the Good Shepherd Go? Civic Virtue and Sorting into Public Sector Employment," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 20(4), pages 571-599, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:germec:v:20:y:2019:i:4:p:e571-e599
    DOI: 10.1111/geer.12180
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    Cited by:

    1. Adam Ayaita & Kathleen Stürmer, 2020. "Risk aversion and the teaching profession: an analysis including different forms of risk aversion, different control groups, selection and socialization effects," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 4-25, January.
    2. Andree Ehlert & Eva García‐Morán, 2022. "Workers' self‐selection into public sector employment: A tale of absenteeism," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(3), pages 394-409, August.
    3. Theresa Geißler, 2025. "What an (Un) Favorable Match: Public Sector Employment and the Reversal of the Overeducation-Job Satisfaction Penalty," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 26(6), pages 1-34, August.
    4. Max Deter, 2020. "Prosociality and Risk Preferences in the Financial Sector," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1075, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    5. Dur, Robert & van Lent, Max, 2018. "Serving the public interest in several ways: Theory and empirics," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 13-24.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H0 - Public Economics - - General
    • H1 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • M5 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics

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