Working for Nothing and Being Happy. The Determinants of the Satisfaction of Volunteers and Paid Workers

Miriam Michelutti and Marina Schenkel
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Miriam Michelutti: Università di Udine
Marina Schenkel: Università di Udine

Chapter 6 in Paid and Unpaid Labour in the Social Economy. An International Perspective, 2009, pp 81-95 from AIEL - Associazione Italiana Economisti del Lavoro

Abstract: This essay attempts to understand the factors determining the satisfaction that volunteers derive from their own activity, and then to compare them with those determining the satisfaction of paid workers. The novelty of this approach is that volunteers and paid workers are compared in the same data-set (from Italy), using the same measure of the rewards and reported satisfaction for both types of workers. The main findings are that volunteers are individuals who perform an activity which gives them satisfaction for a number of different reasons, and that, while the determinants of satisfaction are not exactly the same for volunteers and paid workers, both of them attach special consideration to the users’ well-being.

Keywords: voluntary work; job satisfaction; worker incentives. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D64 J22 J28 J32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ail:chapts:03-06

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