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Type Working Paper
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title The happy artist? An empirical application of the work-preference model
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Lasse Steiner
  • Lucian Schneider
Language
  • English
Institution University of Zurich
Series Name Working paper series / Department of Economics
Number No. 37
ISSN 1664-7041
Date 2011
Abstract Text The artistic labor market is marked by several adversities, such as low wages, above-average unemployment, and constrained underemployment. Nevertheless, it attracts many young people. The number of students exceeds the available jobs by far. A potential explanation for this puzzle is that artistic work might result in exceptionally high job satisfaction, a conjecture that has been mentioned at various times in the literature. We conduct the first direct empirical investigation of artists’ job satisfaction. The analysis is based on panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Survey (SOEP). Artists on average are found to be considerably more satisfied with their work than non-artists, a finding that corroborates the conjectures in the literature. Differences in income, working hours, and personality cannot account for the observed difference in job satisfaction. Partially, but not fully, the higher job satisfaction can be attributed to the higher self-employment rate among artists. Suggestive evidence is found that superior “procedural” characteristics of artistic work, such as increased variety and on-the-job learning, contribute to the difference in job satisfaction.
Official URL http://www.econ.uzh.ch/static/wp/econwp037.pdf
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Keywords job satisfaction, artists, work-preference, cultural economics, Arbeitszufriedenheit, Arbeitsmarkt, Künstler, Berufswahl
Additional Information Wurde auch als SOEPpapers 2012 veröffentlicht: http://www.diw.de/sixcms/detail.php?id=392828