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Personality, Job Satisfaction and Health — The Mediating Influence of Affectivity

Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics volume 144, pages 379–435 (2008)Cite this article

Summary

This paper evaluates the relationship between job satisfaction and subjective and objective measures of health of workers over 50 using the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) and cross-sectional data from the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Methodologically, we address problems of (a) cross-sectional causality and (b) absence of objective measures of physical health and intellectual ability. We find a positive link between job satisfaction and various self-report health measures and intellectual ability, but not for physical health. Further analysis with the SHP indicates that job satisfaction serves as transmission channel of working conditions, prior health state and affective mental state for most self-report measures, while for specific health problems such as depressive states and problems with the back a direct beneficial effect of job satisfaction remains.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics, Sveavägen 65, SE-11383, Stockholm, Sweden

    Justina A. V. Fischer

  2. Thurgau Institute for Economics, University of Konstanz, Hauptstrasse 90, CH-Kreuzlingen, Switzerland

    Justina A. V. Fischer

  3. University of Hohenheim, Hohenheim, Germany

    Alfonso Sousa-Poza (Chair for Household and Consumer Economics)

  4. Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland

    Alfonso Sousa-Poza (Chair for Household and Consumer Economics)

Authors
  1. Justina A. V. Fischer
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  2. Alfonso Sousa-Poza
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Correspondence to Justina A. V. Fischer.

Additional information

Acknowledgements: This study was realized using the data collected for the “Living in Switzerland Survey” compiled by the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) at the Université de Neuchâtel, a project financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant numbers 5004-53205/5004-57894/5004-67304/10FI11-103293). The authors would also like to thank the Swiss National Science Foundation for financial assistance (grant number 5004-69465). Justina Fischer thanks the London School of Economics (STICERD) for her generous hospitality and also acknowledges financing through a Marie Curie experienced researcher fellowship.

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Fischer, J.A.V., Sousa-Poza, A. Personality, Job Satisfaction and Health — The Mediating Influence of Affectivity. Swiss J Economics Statistics 144, 379–435 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03399260

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