What motivates (un)satisfied physicians?

Policymakers across countries are struggling to retain and attract physicians. The design of policies to retain and attract physicians requires knowledge about their motivations to ensure that physicians are satisfied with their work. Based on the agency literature, we set up a theoretical framework outlining physicians' satisfaction (a proxy of utility) as a function of different sources of motivation (profits, patient benefits, societal benefits, and reputation). We then provide novel empirical evidence of how these motivations link to physicians' work satisfaction. This evidence is based on unique survey data on Danish general practitioners (GPs) which measures different dimensions of motivations and work satisfaction in 2019, combined with detailed register data on their working conditions. Using ordinary least square regressions, we estimate the association between GPs' work satisfaction and different sources of motivations, while controlling for a rich set of demand and supply factors. We find that one standard deviation (SD) increase in altruism towards society and in reputational motivation is associated with an increase of 8.4% and 8.7% of one SD in GP satisfaction, respectively. In contrast, one SD increase in profit orientation is associated with a 8.0% reduction of one SD in GP satisfaction. These results are robust to accounting for demand and supply factors. Overall, we predict theoretically and demonstrate empirically that different sources of motivation relate differently to physicians’ work satisfaction. This knowledge may be useful for policymakers to design policies that can attract and retain more individuals to the profession.