This study examines work orientations as a novel determinant influencing job search behaviors, quit intentions, and workplace effort, thereby integrating this concept into the field of labor economics. Work orientations, the intrinsic beliefs regarding the role of work in one's life, relate to...

Although relative performance schemes are pervasive in organizations reliable empirical data on induced sabotage behavior is almost non-existent. We study sabotage in tournaments in a controlled laboratory experiment and are able to confirm one of the key insights from theory: effort and...

We investigate a unique setting which enables us to distinguish between two theories of work performance. A standard labor supply framework implies a negative effect of the non-pecuniary cost of work on the employee's effort. In contrast, a model of worker morale that is consistent with a widely...

Self-determination theory posits that individuals are motivated at work when their inherent psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness are satisfied. Drawing on this theory, this paper presents a new conceptual model explaining how work meaningfulness influences effort at...

This paper aims to survey the theoretical and empirical literature on cross-country differences in overeducation. While technological change and globalization have entailed a skill-bias in the evolution of labour demand in the Anglo-Saxon countries, instead, in other advanced economies in...

We use data from six cohorts of university graduates in Germany to assess the extent of gender gaps in college and labor market performance twelve to eighteen months after graduation. Men and women enter college in roughly equal numbers, but more women than men complete their degrees. Women...

A large body of literature has shown that the gender wage gap is small in the first years after graduation and increases gradually with age, largely because of family decisions, i.e., a penalty caused by childbirth. However, the gender wage gap immediately after graduation has received less...

This paper considers the potential for the cultural transmission of attitudes toward work, welfare, and individual responsibility to explain the intergenerational correlation in welfare receipt. Specifically, we investigate whether 18-year olds' views about social benefits and the drivers of...

The paper empirically expounds the richness of the identity approach to labor market behavior by allowing individuals to experience identity conflict. Specifically, it investigates the relationship between the importance individuals attach to labor-market activities - which is influenced by the...