Artists’ Job and Life Satisfaction (Master-Thesis)

Abstract

The artistic labor market is marked by several adversities, such as low wages, above-average unemployment, and constrained underemployment. Nevertheless, it attracts many young people. The number of students exceeds the available jobs by far. A potential explanation for this puzzle is that artistic work might result in an exceptionally high job satisfaction, a conjecture that has been mentioned at various times in the literature. In this paper, the first direct empirical investigation of artists’ job and life satisfaction is conducted. The analysis bases on panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Survey (SOEP). Artists are on average found to be considerably more satisfied with their work than non-artists, a claim that corroborates with the conjectures from the literature. Material outcomes, such as higher pay or a lower number of working hours, as well as differences in personality, cannot account for the observed difference in job satisfaction. Partly, but not fully, the difference in job satisfaction can be attributed to the higher self-employment rate among artists. Suggestive evidence is found that superior “procedural” characteristics of artistic work, such as increased variety and on-the-job-learning, contribute to the difference in job satisfaction. Artists are also found to enjoy a higher life satisfaction than non-artists.