Honesty and self-selection into public service in Slovakia

This paper investigates whether the Slovak public sector attracts individuals with different ethical standards than those pursuing private careers. Using a survey experiment involving economics undergraduates, we replicate the dice-under-cup task to measure dishonesty and link it to career preferences. We find that students who prefer public service or political career are more likely to engage in dishonest conduct, even after controlling for expected salary, academic performance, gender, and charitable-giving. However, those who donate more of their earnings to charity are less likely to cheat. Our findings also show that preferences for public employment are driven by income and working hours, rather than internal interest in the work. These results raise concerns about adverse self-selection into public roles and suggest that raising public sector wages alone may not improve integrity. Our study contributes to the literature on self-selection and corruption by providing novel evidence from a post-transition economy context.