Are Public Sector Workers More Happiness?

We need to understand the "civil servant fever" from a broader perspective.In modern economies,the public sector cannot be ignored,both in terms of volume and scale of employment.Since the "18th National Congress",the central government has repeatedly issued documents to strictly regulate the daily work of civil servants,effectively reducing their power rent-seeking space and significantly reducing their gray income.However,the "civil servant fever" did not significantly cool down.Obviously,the attractiveness of the public sector is not limited to its income premium.The welfare subsidies,such as housing and children's enrollment,may be the more important factors driving people's access to the public sector.Therefore,this article takes people's comprehensive subjective welfare index-happiness,and more comprehensively evaluates the employment advantage of the public sector,thus providing a new perspective for understanding the "civil servant fever".The allocation of labor resources has greatly affected the growth of national wealth.In an effective labor market,there is an ideal match between workers and jobs.In the ideal match state,both the labor supplier and the labor demander can achieve maximum welfare.From the perspective of employment,this paper examines the welfare effects of public sector workers more comprehensively.Based on the China Household Finance Survey data(CHFS,2011),this paper examines the public sector's welfare effects on individual employment choices.First,quantitatively assess the differences in individual subjective well-being between public and non-public sector employees,and explore the role of income,social security and other factors in it.It then examines the heterogeneous effects of public sector employment on individual well-being.The classification of public sector employees is classified by whether or not they are prepared,and the staff who have been prepared are further subdivided into administrative establishments and career establishments.Employment in the public sector has a significant happiness premium for individuals.After switching from the non-public sector to the public sector,individual subjective well-being has increased significantly,roughly equivalent to a 2-4 fold increase in personal income.Within the public sector,the increase in subjective well-being of individuals without the preparation of staff has at least a four-fold increasein their personal income.After controlling a range of personal and macro variables that affect the level of well-being,the public sector's happiness premium has remained fairly stable.This paper guarantees the robustness of the research conclusions through the tendency value matching analysis.In order to better solve the sample bias,this paper weakens this effect by using the propensity value matching method.The results of the robustness test prove that there is a positive impact on the subjective well-being of public sector employees and individuals compared to the non-public sector;there is indeed a positive impact on the subjective well-being of staff and individuals compared to unemployed workers.This article may have two marginal contributions.First,the sense of well-being as a comprehensive subjective welfare index provides a more comprehensive assessment of the attractiveness of the public sector to individual employment,thus providing a new perspective for the “civil servant fever”.The second is to subdivide the internal public sector and further examine the heterogeneity of the employment happiness effect in the public sector.This study will help to improve the overall welfare of the society,and also provide reference for the reform of the personnel system in the public sector in China.