New evidence on cross-country differences in job satisfaction using anchoring vignettes

This paper presents results on cross-country comparison of job satisfaction across seven EU countries taking into account that people in different countries may perceive subjective questions differently. We apply a chopit model approach where the threshold parameters in an ordered probit model are re-scaled through anchoring vignettes. Compared to a traditional ordered probit model, which yields the familiar result that Denmark and Finland are ranked in the very top, the country ranking is altered when the chopit model is applied. In this case, the Scandinavian countries are ranked somewhat lower while workers from the Netherlands are found to have the highest level of job satisfaction. These results suggest that cultural differences in the way people perceive subjective questions about satisfaction make simple cross-country comparison misleading.