Intrinsic Motivations and the Non-Profit Health Sector: Evidence from Ethiopia

Danila Serra, Pieter Serneels and Abigail Barr

No 4746, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Economists have traditionally assumed that individual behavior is motivated exclusively by extrinsic incentives. Social psychologists, in contrast, stress that intrinsic motivations are also important. In recent work, economic theorists have started to build psychological factors, like intrinsic motivations, into their models. Besley and Ghatak (2005) propose that individuals are differently motivated in that they have different "missions," and their self-selection into sectors or organizations with matching missions enhances organizational efficiency. We test Besley and Ghatak's model using data from a unique cohort study. We generate two proxies for intrinsic motivations: a survey-based measure of the health professionals’ philanthropic motivations and an experimental measure of their pro-social motivations. We find that both proxies predict health professionals' decision to work in the non-profit sector. We also find that philanthropic health workers employed in the non-profit sector earn lower wages than their colleagues.

Keywords: sector choice; intrinsic motivation; non-profit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 I11 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2010-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-lab and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Published - published in: Personality and Individual Differences, 2011, 51 (3), 309-314

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Related works:
Working Paper: Intrinsic motivations and the non-profit health sector: Evidence from Ethiopia (2010)
Working Paper: Intrinsic motivations and the non-profit health sector: Evidence from Ethiopia (2010)
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