“…Do it with joy!” – Subjective well-being outcomes of working in non-profit organizations

Martin Binder

Journal of Economic Psychology, 2016, vol. 54, issue C, 64-84

Abstract: Working in non-profit organizations has been shown to be good for individuals’ satisfaction with their jobs despite lower incomes. This paper explores the impact of non-profit work on life satisfaction more general for the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and finds a significant positive impact the size about more than a fourth of that of getting widowed. This effect is quite uniform across the subjective well-being distribution, and thus exists also for those who are already happy. Shadow prices peg this effect at around 22,000GBP p.a., the average amount of equivalent net household income in the sample analyzed (which is roughly 27,000GBP p.a.). The positive effect can be explained by third sector workers enjoying their day-to-day activities more, being (affectively) happier and feeling that they are playing a useful role in their lives.

Keywords: Subjective well-being; Non-profit organization; Life satisfaction; BHPS; Job satisfaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:54:y:2016:i:c:p:64-84

DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2016.03.003

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