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AbstractEvidence from many countries shows that public sector employees have considerably higher rates of absenteeism than have private sector employees. Based on regression analyses of a large probability sample of the Norwegian population, this article shows that most of the sector difference in long-term absence can be accounted for by taking into consideration the sociodemographic characteristics of the workforce and the occupational composition in the two sectors. A clear sector difference in short-term absenteeism cannot be accounted for in this way. A direct effect of the working or employment conditions in the two sectors is also not a likely explanation, since workers who switch between the sectors are not more absent when they are in the public than when they are in the private sector. Thus, the high level of short-term absenteeism in the public sector seems to be due to a selection of absence-prone individuals to the sector. Since motivational factors are likely to be relatively more important for short-term than for long-term, these findings indicate that lower work attendance motivation in public sector employees may be the main driver. These patterns are consistent with an economic explanation in which people with low attendance motivation select to the public sector, since the work attendance incentives are weaker there. The degree to which the results are compatible with the theory public service motivation is also discussed.

A common assumption is that autonomy is crucial to professional workers. I examine this using survey data on a sample of public sector welfare professionals, viz. medical doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers. Comparisons are made with general population data from the International Social Survey Programme. Two methods of assessing the importance of work autonomy are employed; respondents' direct ratings and statistical associations between work autonomy (and other job characteristics) on the one hand and job satisfaction and organizational commitment on the other. Findings: Autonomy is not rated as more important among the professionals than in the general population, and neither is it more strongly related to job satisfaction. Interesting work and workplace social support appear to be more central.

The prevailing view in the research literature is that social origin has little impact on educational choices made late in one's educational career. The article focuses on one very late transition, viz. enrolment in PhD programmes. The most important theoretical point of departure is the Breen and Goldthorpe relative risk aversion (RRA) theory. The analyses show that class origins have an impact, but only in how individuals at the very top of the class hierarchy deviate from the rest. There are also considerable effects of having parents who have themselves taken doctoral degrees and of having parents employed in higher education or research. The results do not support the RRA theory with mobility defined in terms of class, but they are consistent with a modified version in which individuals are assumed to be concerned about their educational mobility irrespective of whether or not additional education affects class position.

A relationship between marital status on the one hand and various indicators of wellbeing and mental health on the other has been found in a large number of studies. Typically, that the currently married have been shown to enjoy the most favorable position, the divorced and widowed are generally worst off, and the never married in an intermediate position. This paper provides an analysis of the consistency and generality of this relationship: To what extent are there national differences? Is the relationship stronger for men than for women, as has been suggested by several authors? And is there evidence for such a relationship whatever measure of psychological well-being we use? Comparable interview data from 19 countries, including a few non-western ones, are used. The data are analyzed by ordinary linear regression methods, representing marital status by means of dummy variables and controlling for age and parenthood. Atleast some evidence of differences in psychological well-being between the currently married on the one hand and the previously married and the never married on the other are found in practically all countries. On average the relationship between marital status and well-being is quite similar for men and women. More striking differences are found between well-being measures. The relationship with marital status is weakest for positive affect and strongest for self-reported happiness, with the results for negative affect and overall life satisfaction falling in between.

The low psychological well-being of the divorced and separated could be due to the hardships of the divorce process, more general problems of unmarried living, or differential selection for divorce. Using combined questionnaire and register data on 39,000 Norwegian men and women, it is shown that psychological well-being is a strong predictor of subsequent marital dissolution over a 2-to 4-year period. The strength of the relationship is particularly strong in the short run, but remains significant throughout the period of observation. The strong short-term relationship is most probably due to hardships associated with the divorce process. The somewhat weaker long-term relationship could be due to selection effects, but the possibility that low well-being many years before the separation may be due to persistent marital problems cannot be ruled out.

The paper provides a description of the Norwegcan Study of Organizations and Employees (NSOE). in which data were collected at the establishment level as well as from individual employees. Research design as well as fieldwork are discussed. Using wage determination as an example. the usefulness of this kind of multi-level data collection is illustrated by means of two kinds of analysis: viz. within group estimation. to remove selectivity bias. and contextual analysis. to examine how organizational characteristics affect individual level outcomes

According to Ronald Inglehart, post-materialist values are a well-integrated and stable part of the individuals personality, affecting a wide range of attitudes and behaviors. This article focuses on possible effects on the criteria by which individuals evaluate their living conditions; for instance, do materialists - compared to post-materialists - give more weight to such concerns as income or housing standard and less to broader social and political issues, as Inglehart claims? On balance, the results provide some tentative support for Inglehart's theory, although the differences are gen erally small and not always in the expected direction.