Chasing after 'good jobs.' Do they exist and does it matter if they do?

摘要

Most people believe that there are such things as good jobs-jobs that a worker would consider herself lucky to get. But for economists, the existence of good jobs is debatable. In this paper, I provide a definition of a good job based on various theories of the labour market: a job that involves a surplus captured partly by the worker. I use that definition to guide an empirical investigation of the existence and importance of good jobs. I conclude that good jobs do exist-that the labour market does not just function according to a Roy model with wage differentials reflecting only skill differentials, compensating differentials or bond posting-and that their impact on the overall wage structure is substantial. Finally, I discuss the implications of the existence of good jobs for policy setting and for assessments of the justice of a society.