Yannis Georgellis

SP Jain School of Global Management

Employing fixed effects regression techniques on longitudinal data, we investigate how life events affect employees’ job satisfaction. Unlike previous work-life research, exploring mostly contemporaneous correlations, we look for evidence of adaptation in the years following major life events. We find evidence of adaptation following the first marr...

Using data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), we investigate how various types of job training impact upon employees’ job satisfaction and its domains. We find that orientation training exerts a significant positive effect on newcomer male employees’ job satisfaction in both the private and public sectors, but it increases the job sati...

The notion that self-employed individuals are more satisfied with their jobs than wage-employees has found broad empirical support. Previous research exploring the well-being effects of self-employment typically relies on direct cross-sectional comparisons between wage-employees and self-employed or on longitudinal investigations of transitions in...

We use British panel data to explore the link between occupational status and life satisfaction. We find puzzling evidence for men of a U-shaped relationship in cross-section data: employees in medium-status occupations report lower life satisfaction scores than those of employees in either low- or high-status occupations. This puzzle disappears in...

We look for evidence of habituation in twenty waves of German panel data: do individuals tend to return to some baseline level of well-being after life and labour market events? Although the strongest life satisfaction effect is often at the time of the event, we find significant lag and lead effects. We cannot reject the hypothesis of complete ada...

To eradicate poverty, governments across developing countries have adopted programs to promote business ownership, with varying levels of success. The mixed success of such programs underscores the importance of local business and economic conditions. Yet, empirical evidence on how local context shapes outcomes of entrepreneurship-focused poverty i...

We explore whether employees compare their pay to the pay of others in a similarly prestigious occupation and, if so, whether this comparison has a negative impact on pay satisfaction. Using an experimental vignette methodology, Study 1 found that people are more inclined to compare with others from a similar or identical occupation and that compar...

This study investigates the relationship between unemployment and employee loyalty across UK regions. It is argued that higher regional unemployment depresses wages and increases the cost of a potential job loss, thus providing an incentive for employees to be loyal to their employer. Using data from the Work and Employment Relations Survey (WERS),...

Using British longitudinal data, we investigate whether individuals enjoy a permanent boost in their job satisfaction by becoming self-employed. We track individuals before and after transitions from work to self-employment and record changes in their job and domain satisfaction scores. We find that job satisfaction follows a rising trajectory imme...

Employees’ personal, physical, and psychological resources enable them to flourish at work, performing at their best and to be as satisfied with their jobs as they can be. However, the availability of resources alone is not sufficient for employees to reach their job satisfaction potential. The effective utilization of these resources is equally im...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the big-five personality traits and employees’ chances to become managers, paying particular attention to gender and sector differences. Design/methodology/approach – Using longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey, covering the period 1991-2008, the a...

Using the Phillips and Sul (Econometrica 75:1771–1855, 2007) club convergence and clustering procedure, we examine happiness convergence dynamics across Europe. Although we reject the hypothesis of full convergence, we find evidence of distinct happiness convergence clubs. Against the background of a weak link between income and happiness in the ex...

We look for evidence of adaptation in wellbeing to major life events using eighteen waves of British panel data. Adaptation to marriage, divorce, birth of child and widowhood appears to be rapid and complete; this is not so for unemployment. These findings are remarkably similar to those in previous work on German panel data. Equally, the time prof...

Using data from the European Values Survey (EVS), we examine the relationship between job and life satisfaction across Europe. We find that for the majority of employees, job and life satisfaction are positively correlated, thus supporting the spillover hypothesis, whereby attitudes and practices developed in the life domain spill over into the wor...

Employing intrinsically motivated individuals has been proposed as a means of improving public sector performance. In this article, we investigate whether intrinsic motivation affects the sorting of employees between the private and the public sectors, paying particular attention to whether extrinsic rewards crowd out intrinsic motivation. Using Br...

A large empirical and theoretical literature has highlighted the importance of intrinsic motivation in improving organisational pefrformance. However, researchers have not investigated whether on-the-job training or the type of training received has an impact on the intrinsic motivation of employees. We argue that on-the-job training can enhance fe...

Theoretical arguments highlight the importance of Public Service Motivation (PSM) in underpinning employment relationships in the public sector, mainly based on the presumption that many aspects of public service provision are non-contractible. Consequently, hiring workers who are public service, or pro-socially, motivated helps to overcome incenti...

We look for evidence of adaptation of well-being to major life events in sixteen waves of British panel data. We find that, with the exception of unemployment, adaptation to other life events including marriage, divorce, birth of a child and widowhood is rapid and complete. These findings are remarkably similar to those found in previous analysis o...

Using data from the first two rounds of the European Social Survey, we examine the link between income, reference income and life satisfaction across Western Europe. We find that whilst there is a strong positive relationship between income and life satisfaction, reference or comparison income exerts a strong negative influence. Interestingly, our...

Using cross-sectional data from the first two rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS), we examine the relationship between income, relative income and happiness across 19 European countries. We find that a positive and statistically significant relationship between income and happiness does exist, but such a relationship is weakened by reference...

Guest Editorial Introduction to Special Issue

Purpose The aim of this paper is to model the dynamic path of adjustment towards pre‐unemployment levels of wellbeing for a group of full‐time workers who experienced job loss. Design/methodology/approach Based on data from the German Socio‐economic Panel, a large‐scale panel survey, the paper captures the non‐linear nature of the adaptation proce...

Employing workers with Public Service Motivation (PSM) has been proposed as a means of improving performance in the public sector. There is, however, no conclusive evidence showing PSM among individuals. In this paper we attempt to firstly find evidence of PSM by investigating why people change jobs from the private to the public sector. Secondly w...

We examine the correlates of windfall gains amongst a sample of British respondents. Our results suggest that such gains are not random, but are significantly related to a variety of individual characteristics and traits. In particular, proxies of social capital are significantly related to the probability of receiving a windfall.

Notwithstanding a renewed interest in the well-being effects of job loss for individuals, there is surprisingly little empirical evidence on the dynamics of the adaptation to unemployment process. Using large-scale panel data, we model the dynamic path of adjustment towards pre-unemployment levels of well-being for a group of full-time workers who...

Using large-scale panel data, we examine the dynamics of adjustment towards reference points for key workplace attributes. We discover that an Exponential Smooth Transition Autoregressive (ESTAR) model is superior to a linear model in characterizing such a process. The speed of adjustment increases non-linearly with the distance from reference poin...

A number of studies in the human resources literature acknowledge the importance of workplace training for inducing organisational commitment on the part of workers. However, small sample sizes and the absence of relevant panel data have raised concerns about the general validity of results and highlighted the need for further research to explicitl...

Purpose – To introduce the papers which make up a special issue of IJM on labour market intervention. Design/methodology/approach – Briefly describes each of the five papers which comprise this issue of IJM. Findings – Notes that the study contexts of the papers are New Zealand, the UK, Sweden, West Germany, and 14 member countries of the EU. Or...

Purpose The aim of the paper is to assess the determinants and impact of employer sponsored further training on wage growth in West Germany over the period 1992 to 2002. Design/methodology/approach Following a descriptive narrative on further training and wages in Germany, data derived from the West German sub‐sample of the German Socio‐Economic P...

We examine the factors that determine self-employment duration in Britain, paying particular attention to self-reported job satisfaction variables and non-pecuniary aspects of self-employment. Based on spell data from the British Household Panel Study, we estimate single-risk and competing-risks hazard models, separately for males and females. Our...

We review longitudinal studies on self-employment dynamics, classifying studies into those that examine transitions into self-employment, and those that examine self-employment exit and survival. A number of hypotheses from both the economic and social-psychological literatures are examined vis. the effects on self-employment dynamics of financial,...

This paper uses a panel approach to examine the effect that the government-policy environment has on the level of entrepreneurship. Specifically, the authors investigate whether marginal income tax rates and bankruptcy exemptions influence rates of entrepreneurship. Whereas previous work in the literature finds that both policies are positively rel...

We examine the transition to, and survival in, self-employment among a sample of British workers. We find evidence of capital constrains, with wealthier individuals being more likely to transit ceteris paribus. Windfall gains raise the probability of transition at a decreasing rate – gains or more than £20000–£22000 reduce the probability of transi...

This paper examines the factors that influence transitions into self-employment, paying particular attention to gender differences. We find that: (i) men are more responsive to the wage differential between wage/salaried employment and self-employment; (ii) liquidity constraints are more important for men; and (iii) the link between father's self-e...

Within an incomplete-contract framework, we examine the consequences of contract renegotiation for contract design/enforcement and training market efficiency. Specifically, we show how the imposition of either firing costs or exit costs can bind together employers and employees in longer-lasting employment relationships that allow both agents to am...

Danny Kahneman's experimental work is justifiably famous. Individuals report their experienced utility at various points in time throughout a number of different events. Their choices of which experiences to repeat do not always maximise total enjoyment or minimise total pain. Decisions are better described by the average of the peak experience and...

We investigate how apprenticeship training affects the early career mobility and earnings profiles of young apprentices in Germany. The heterogeneous quality and nature (whether general or firm specific) of training across firms is expected to be reflected in the post-apprenticeship mobility and earning patterns of young workers. In this paper, we...

According to set-point theories of subjective well-being, people react to events but then return to baseline levels of happiness and satisfaction over time. We tested this idea by examining reaction and adaptation to unemployment in a 15-year longitudinal study of more than 24,000 individuals living in Germany. In accordance with set-point theories...

According to adaptation theory, individuals react to events but quickly adapt back to baseline levels of subjective well-being. To test this idea, the authors used data from a 15-year longitudinal study of over 24.000 individuals to examine the effects of marital transitions on life satisfaction. On average, individuals reacted to events and then a...

We develop a simple labour turnover model of general training. Upon completion of their training, apprentices are equipped with general skills and they accumulate firm-specific skills by continuing working for their training firm. Job turnover is associated with a loss of accumulated firm-specific skills, not fully transferable to new employers. Ou...

This paper considers the psychological impact of past unemployment. Using 11 waves of German panel data, we show that life satisfaction is lower not only for the current unemployed (relative to the employed), but also for those with higher levels of past unemployment. However, the negative well-being effect of current unemployment is weaker for tho...

There is a great deal of variation in the levels of entrepreneurship, or rates of self-employment, across the regions of Britain. Over the period 1983-1995, average self-employment in the North, Scotland, and the West Midlands was respectively 25%, 15%, and 15% lower than the national average, whereas in the South West, East Anglia, and Wales it wa...

Using a sample of some 300 small independent businesses, drawn from Central London, the paper examines how entrepreneurial behaviour affects business performance. It is argued that small businesses motivated by a desire to grow in terms of sales and/or employees and to survive in a dynamic and competitive environment need to be innovative. However,...

Self-employment, or entrepreneurship, is commonly held to provide an important avenue for individuals to advance up the income ladder. For some, it may provide a better route than paid employment, while for others, who may be disadvantaged when pursuing paid employment, it may provide the only route. 1 The perceived importance of selfemployment is...

Exploiting the theoretical parallels between the matching of workers to jobs in the labour market and the matching of individuals in the marriage market, we use a search theoretic model of marriage formation and dissolution to examine the effect of divorce costs on both decisions. By introducing learning at both stages of the marital decision proce...

This paper uses data from ten waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel to examine the effect of wages and job satisfaction on workers' future quit behavior. Our results show that workers who report dissatisfaction with their jobs are statistically more likely to quit than those with higher levels of satisfaction. The cross-sectional distribution of...

In this paper, the authors use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) to examine the effect of further training on wage growth in West Germany for the period 1984 to 1992. After controlling for the endogeneity of the training participation decision and the presence of unobserved fixed effects, the authors estimate a wage growth equation...

Based on UK data, this study uses parametric and non-parametric hazard models to assess the significance of pre-marital cohabitation in affecting patterns of first marriage durations.

In a job matching context, Bayesian learning is assumed in order to provide an optimising framework for the analysis of workers' labour turnover decisions. This framework allows workers' labour turnover behaviour to be affected not only by the wage rate but also by a vector of non-wage job attributes and self-reported satisfaction variables. Assumi...

In this paper we use cointegration techniques to test the long-run Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) hypothesis for nine Drachma exchange rates within the European currency area. The results support the long-run PPP hypothesis only in the cases of Portugal, Spain and the UK, as these countries were not seriously constrained by the Exchange Rate Mechani...

Critics of the standard Dickey–Fuller and augmented Dickey–Fuller tests for unit roots argue that when there have been significant structural breaks during the sample period, these tests are often biased toward acceptance. Allowing for a one-time change in the slope of the trend function often leads to rejection of the unit-root hypothesis which im...

The effect of the dependent tax exemption on the fertility rate in the United States is estimated. The estimation is an improvement on previous work in that a non-linear specification is used to better capture the shape of the demand for children. It is found that the marginal effect of the dependent exemption decreases with the level of the exempt...

According to adaptation theory, individuals react to events, but quickly adapt back to baseline levels of subjective well-being. To test this idea, the authors use data from a 15-year longitudinal study of over 30 000 individuals to examine the effects of marital transitions on life satisfaction. On average, individuals reacted to events and then a...

Although existing studies in the strategic management literature examine the importance of reference points in the context of managerial decisions vis-à-vis organizational performance, there is surprisingly little evidence on how reference earnings affect employees' wellbeing and behavior. The present study closes this gap by investigating adaptati...

This paper examines how culture, defined in our analysis by reference to traditional versus secular values, affects the work-life balance across Europe. Specifically, we focus on the factors that affect the propensity of individuals across 30 European countries to exhibit behavioural patterns in the work and life domains consistent with the segment...