Are Chinese college graduates satisfied with serving as village officials? An evaluation with nationwide survey data. Issue 3 (2nd September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gao, Yanyan; Zang, Leizhen; Sun, Jun
• Is Part Of: Journal of Asian public policy. Volume 12:Issue 3(2019)
• Page Start: 274
• Page End: 293
• Publication Date: 2019-09-02
• Subjects: Job satisfaction -- graduate village officials (大学生村官) -- ordered-probit model -- Chinese government -- nationwide survey data; Asia -- Economic policy -- Periodicals; Asia -- Government policy -- Periodicals; 320.6095
• DOI: 10.1080/17516234.2018.1432097
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-6234

Abstract

ABSTRACT: To promote rural socio-economic development, the Chinese government has encouraged college graduates to work in villages since 2005, bringing about a novel nonmarket-determined job called graduate village official. We use nationwide survey data to analyse the determinants of job satisfaction for graduate village officials. Empirical results show that the job satisfaction of graduate village officials is basically not determined by their personal traits, but by social contexts as well as job factors. Salary, occupational pride, adaption to rural work, supports from leaders and job prospects impact more on graduate village officials' job satisfaction than other factors. Unreasonable policy management and implementation contribute to graduate village officials' job dissatisfaction. Finally, we briefly discuss potential policy implications of our findings.