Serving the Public Interest in Several Ways: Theory and Empirics

Robert Dur and Max van Lent ()
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Max van Lent: Leiden University

No 11095, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We develop a model where people differ in their altruistic preferences and can serve the public interest in two ways: by making donations to charity and by taking a public service job and exerting effort on the job. Our theory predicts that people who are more altruistic are more likely to take a public service job and, for a given job, make higher donations to charity. Comparing equally altruistic workers, those with a regular job make higher donations to charity than those with a public service job by a simple substitution argument. We subsequently test these predictions using cross-sectional data from Germany on self-reported altruism, sector of employment, and donations to charity. In addition, we use panel data from the Netherlands on volunteering and sector of employment. We find support for most of our predictions.

Keywords: public sector employment; public service motivation; volunteering; charitable donations; altruism; self-selection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D64 H11 J45 M50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2017-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm and nep-lma
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Published - published in: Labour Economics, 2018, 51, 13-24

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Related works:
Journal Article: Serving the public interest in several ways: Theory and empirics (2018)
Working Paper: Serving the Public Interest in Several Ways: Theory and Empirics (2017)
Working Paper: Serving the Public Interest in Several Ways: Theory and Empirics (2016)
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