The role of exogenous macro shocks in shaping the appeal of government employment
研究国家危机如何影响个人对政府就业的偏好，基于以色列在哈马斯10月7日袭击前后的调查数据，发现危机适度提升政府工作吸引力，但更显著增强非营利部门吸引力，且公共服务动机和信任在其中起关键作用。
Studies of individuals’ attraction to work in the public sector overlook the likely effect of perturbations to the national-level context. Advancing this research agenda, this article examines whether and how a national crisis shapes attraction to government employment over other sectors. Drawing on the established “rally ‘round the flag effect,” we expect a national crisis to boost public sector attraction. Exploiting a three-wave survey, carried out in Israel before and after Hamas’s October 7 attack, we find a moderate increase in respondents’ preferences to work in government, alongside a larger increase in their attraction to nonprofits. Underlying respondents’ enhanced attraction to nonprofits is an increase in their PSM, whereas a decline in support for the coalition reduces interest in government employment. Additionally, the war amplifies the weight respondents assign to trust in government and PSM. Furthermore, respondents’ open-ended responses after the October 7 attack reveal the salience of job security concerns among those seeking government employment. These findings confirm that national crises change the calculation shaping job seekers’ sector preferences.