Sector Attraction and the Role of Job Information: Evidence from a Conjoint Experiment

Are public and private employees different? And is this difference due to the fact that different people are attracted to work for government rather than companies? It has been proposed that individuals with certain characteristics, such as having high levels of risk aversion or public service motivation (PSM), are more likely to self-select into public service. This study argues that this sector attraction effect depends on the amount of job-related information available to job seekers at different stages of the job search process. We test the hypotheses using a three-stage conjoint experimental design. The employment sector only matters to job seekers when little direct information is provided. Once more job-related information is available to them, it diminishes. This effect is especially strong for people with high levels of PSM. These findings suggest that the sector attraction effect is situational, which has important implications for theory and practice of public sector attraction.