Too Rich to Do the Dirty Work? Wealth Effects on the Demand for Good Jobs

Abstract

Jobs offer different wages and different non-monetary working conditions. This paper investigates how the demand for non-monetary aspects evolves over changing wealth levels. Wages do not perfectly compensate individuals for differential utility of jobs in a labour market with informational frictions. Changes in wealth may then affect preferences for different jobs. Willingness to pay for non-monetary aspects of jobs (measured by job satisfaction for work "in itself") is found to increase with wealth shocks. Duration models are estimated based on the reduced form of a search model. Wealth may play an important role in labour market choices.