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Empirical research in economics has begun to explore the idea that workers care about nonmonetary aspects of work. An increasing number of economic studies using survey and experimental methods have shown that nonmonetary incentives and nonpecuniary aspects of one’s job have substantial impacts on job satisfaction, productivity, and labor supply. By drawing on this evidence and relating it to the literature in psychology, this paper argues that work represents much more than simply earning an income: for many people, work is a source of meaning. In the next section, we give an economic interpretation of meaningful work and emphasize how it is affected by the mission of the organization and the extent to which job design fulfills the three psychological needs at the basis of self-determination theory: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. We point to the evidence that not everyone cares about having a meaningful job and discuss potential sources of this heterogeneity. We sketch a theoretical framework to start to formalize work as a source of meaning and think about how to incorporate this idea into agency theory and labor supply models. We discuss how workers’ search for meaning may affect the design of monetary and nonmonetary incentives. We conclude by suggesting some insights and open questions for future research.

First we discuss how extrinsic incentives may come into conflict with other motivations. For example, monetary incentives from principals may change how tasks are perceived by agents, with negative effects on behavior. In other cases, incentives might have the desired effects in the short term, but they still weaken intrinsic motivations. To put it in concrete terms, an incentive for a child to learn to read might achieve that goal in the short term, but then be counterproductive as an incentive for students to enjoy reading and seek it out over their lifetimes. Next we examine the research literature on three important examples in which monetary incentives have been used in a nonemployment context to foster the desired behavior: education; increasing contributions to public goods; and helping people change their lifestyles, particularly with regard to smoking and exercise. The conclusion sums up some lessons on when extrinsic incentives are more or less likely to alter such behaviors in the desired directions.

This paper exploits the effectively random assignment of judges to Disability Insurance cases to estimate the causal impact of Disability Insurance receipt on labor supply. We find that benefit receipt reduces labor force participation by 26 percentage points three years after a disability determination decision, although the reduction is smaller for older people, college graduates, and those with mental illness. OLS and instrumental variables estimates are similar. Furthermore, over 60 percent of those denied benefits by an administrative law judge are subsequently allowed benefits within ten years, showing that most applicants apply, reapply, and appeal until they get benefits.

\"We use the principal-agent model as a focal theoretical frame for synthesizing what we know, both theoretically and empirically, about the design and dynamics of the implementation of performance management systems in the public sector. In this context, we review the growing body of evidence about how performance measurement and incentive systems function in practice and how individuals and organizations respond and adapt to them over time, drawing primarily on examples from performance measurement systems in public education and social welfare programs. We also describe a dynamic framework for performance measurement systems that takes into account strategic behavior of individuals over time, learning about production functions and individual responses, accountability pressures, and the use of information about the relationship of measured performance to value added. Implications are discussed and recommendations derived for improving public sector performance measurement systems.\" (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku). Forschungsmethode: deskriptive Studie.

We analyse worker self-selection, with a special focus on teachers, to explore whether worker composition is generally endogenous. We analyse laboratory experimental data to provide causal evidence on particular sorting patterns. Our field data analysis focuses specifically on selection patterns of teachers. We find that teachers are more risk averse than employees in other professions, indicating that relatively risk averse individuals sort into teaching occupations under the current system. Using survey measures on trust and reciprocity we find that teachers trust more and are less negatively reciprocal than other employees, and establish differences in personality based on the Big Five concept.

In most OECD member countries labour force attachment, has increased in recent years not only in the age groups 60-64 years but also among people 65 years and older. Focus in this paper is on the trend in older workers' labour force participation in Denmark, Germany and Sweden since 2004. Main emphasis is given to people aged 65-69 years eligible for social security retirement programs from age 65. The gender aspect is included to accommodate different trends for women and men. To explain country differences in trends, the importance of changes in retirement policies of relevance for this age group and cohort relevant changes in education and health is examined and discussed. Further, country differences in the impact from education and health is examined. Results show that the largest increase in labour force participation among people aged 65-69 years has taken place in Sweden following by Germany, while the increase in Denmark is rather small. While the increase in Germany mainly seems to be a result of policy reforms, the increase in Sweden appear to be a result of a combination of policy changes and an increasing educational level. Financial incentives seem most important in Germany and only of minor importance in Denmark, where policy changes directed towards individuals above the age of 65 appear to have been too small so far to affect retirement behaviour significantly. In den meisten OECD-Mitgliedsländern ist in den letzten Jahren nicht nur die Beschäftigung in der Altersgruppe der 60-64-jährigen, sondern auch bei Personen ab 65 Jahren gestiegen. Dieser Artikel analysiert die Arbeitsmarktbeteiligung Älterer in Dänemark, Deutschland und Schweden seit 2004. Das Hauptaugenmerkt liegt dabei auf Menschen in der Altersgruppe der 65 bis 69-jährigen. Geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede werden berücksichtigt, um unterschiedliche Entwicklungen für Frauen und Männer erfassen zu können. Um länderspezifische Unterschiede erklären zu können, werden wichtige Veränderungen in den Rentenprogrammen, die für diese Altersgruppe relevant sind, sowie Änderungen im Bildungsniveau und Gesundheitszustand dieser Alterskohorte untersucht und diskutiert. Weiterhin werden länderspezifische Unterschiede beim Einfluss von Bildung und Gesundheit untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die größte Steigerung der Arbeitsmarktteilnahme unter den 65 bis 69-jährigen in Schweden stattgefunden hat, gefolgt von Deutschland, während die Steigerung in Dänemark eher gering ausfällt. Während der Anstieg in Deutschland vor allem ein Ergebnis politischer Reformen zu sein scheint, ist der Anstieg in Schweden auf eine Kombination aus politischen Reformen und einem gestiegenen Bildungsniveau zurückzuführen. Finanzielle Anreize scheinen in Deutschland den größten Einfluss gehabt zu haben. Demgegenüber waren die Rentenänderungen für über 65-jährige in Dänemark zu gering, um deren Arbeitsmarktbeteiligung signifikant zu beeinflussen.

\"In the aftermath of the financial and economic crisis, large shares of working-age individuals in Spain either did not work or only to a limited extent. As the employment rate bottomed out in 2013, 30% were without employment during the entire year, and a further 15% had weak labour-market attachment, working only a fraction of the year, or on restricted working hours. This paper applies a novel method for measuring and visualising employment barriers of individuals with no or weak labour-market attachment, using household micro-data. It first develops indicators to quantify employment obstacles under three broad headings: (i) work-related capabilities, (ii) incentives, and (iii) employment opportunities. It then uses these indicators in conjunction with a statistical clustering approach to identify unobserved ('latent') groups of individuals facing similar combinations of barriers. The resulting typology of labourmarket difficulties provides insights on the most pressing policy priorities in supporting different groups into employment. A detailed policy discussion illustrates how these empirical results can inform people-centred assessments of existing labour-market integration measures and of key challenges across different policy areas and institutions. The most common employment obstacles in Spain were a lack of work experience, low education and skill levels, and scarce job opportunities. Although financial disincentives, health limitations and care responsibilities were less widespread overall, they remained important barriers for some groups. A striking finding is that 45% of jobless or lowintensity workers face three or more simultaneous barriers, highlighting the limits of narrow policy approaches that focus on subsets of these employment obstacles in isolation.\" (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku).

Many countries have carried out over the past decade a series of reforms and measures to encourage longer working lives and to respond to the looming challenges of rapid population ageing. But have these steps gone far enough and have the necessary measures been taken? Much of the focus of this policy action has been on old-age pension reform but, as stressed in the report Live Longer, Work Longer (OECD 2006 ), a more comprehensive set of reform may be necessary to encourage work at an older age. This includes policy action in three broad areas to: (1) reward work, (2) change employer practices, and (3) improve the employability of workers. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of recent policy initiatives to give older people better work incentives and choices implemented in France, The Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland since 2006 as well as to identify areas where more could be done, covering both supply-side and demand-side aspects.

This study includes retrenchments in unemployment insurance (UI) benefits as an understudied mechanism to investigate possible explanations for wage inequality in the labor market. Using longitudinal data from the Dutch Labor Supply Panel (OSA) over the period 1985—2000, and adopting a quasi-experimental design, we not only extend current research by asking if restrictive changes in UI benefits affect re-employment wages, but also explore variation by the level, and eligibility conditions of UI benefits across gender and over time. Results from a series of fixed-effects models show that lower and shorter UI benefits lead to persisting wage inequalities over time. When investigating whether wage penalties vary across gender, we find that women experience the largest penalties. These findings provide evidence that these particular types of restrictions in UI benefits have likely increased rather than decreased wage inequalities between men and women.

This paper investigates the drivers of female labour force participation in Europe, as well as the implications of achieving greater gender diversity in senior corporate positions. Re-examining the drivers of women's decisions to work is particularly important in the context of Europe. In many European countries, the process of closing gender gaps in labour force participation has stalled, despite greater gender equality in human capital investment, declining birth rates, changing social norms and equal legal access to employment opportunities.