Green Jobs and Meaningful Work

Fabio Landini (), Davide Lunardon () and Alberto Marzucchi ()
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Fabio Landini: University of Parma, Deptartment of Economics and Management
Davide Lunardon: Gran Sasso Science Institute
Alberto Marzucchi: Gran Sasso Science Institute

No 625, SEEDS Working Papers from SEEDS, Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies

Abstract: We investigate the perceived meaning of green jobs. Theoretically, we extend the standard meaningful work framework, by introducing a social esteem component, which depends on both the green content of occupations and the socio-political awareness of environmental issues. To identify green jobs, we employ a task-based indicator based on ESCO data, which is then merged with individual-level data from the 2015 and 2021 waves of the European Working Conditions Survey. Moreover, we proxy the degree of environmental consciousness at the country level through the Environmental Policy Stringency index from the OECD. In line with our theoretical framework, we find that workers’ perceptions of meaningful work increase with the green content of their occupation and are amplified in countries exhibiting higher levels of environmental consciousness. These results highlight the role of social esteem, derived from the contribution to what is considered a socially valuable objective (i.e. the fight against climate change), in shaping the experience of meaningful work. To allow a more ‘causal’ interpretation of the results, we employ an instrumental variable approach which corroborates the main findings.

Keywords: Meaningful work; Green jobs; Social esteem; EWCS; Green transition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 52 pages
Date: 2025-07, Revised 2025-07
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http://www.sustainability-seeds.org/papers/RePec/srt/wpaper/0625.pdf First version, 2025 (application/pdf)
http://www.sustainability-seeds.org/papers/RePec/srt/wpaper/0625.pdf Revised version, 2025 (application/pdf)

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