@techreport{Hamermesh1999Changing,
abstract = {The distribution of job satisfaction widened across cohorts of young men in the U.S. between
1978 and 1988, and between 1978 and 1996, in ways correlated with changing wage
inequality. Satisfaction among workers in upper earnings quantiles rose relative to that of
workers in lower quantiles. An identical phenomenon is observed among men in West
Germany in response to a sharp increase in the relative earnings of high-wage men in the
mid-1990s. Several hypotheses about the determinants of satisfaction are presented and
examined using both cross-section data on these cohorts and panel data from the NLSY and
the German SOEP. The evidence is most consistent with workers? regret about the returns to
their investment in skills affecting their satisfaction. Job satisfaction is especially responsive
to surprises in the returns to observable skills, less so to surprises in the returns to
unobservables; and the effects of earnings shocks on job satisfaction dissipate over time.},
author = {Daniel S. Hamermesh},
copyright = {http://www.econstor.eu/dspace/Nutzungsbedingungen},
keywords = {J28; 330; Job satisfaction; wage inequalitiy returns to human capital; earnings shocks; Arbeitszufriedenheit; Lohnstruktur; Bildungsertrag; Sch\"{a}tzung; USA; Deutschland},
language = {eng},
number = {42},
title = {The Changing Distribution of Job Satisfaction},
type = {IZA Discussion paper series},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10419/20879},
year = {1999}
}
