In this paper, we evaluated the determinants of the decision utility of workers from the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. In our setting, decision utility is the weight assigned by workers to the expected benefits of different job offers. We used a conjoint analysis method based on experimental data on workers' stated preferences towards hypothetical job offers that were characterised by ten attributes. The intrinsic motivation of nonprofit workers was investigated by specifically analysing the influence of three of these attributes, specifically wages, working time, and loyalty of the employer, on decision utility. The results showed evidence of motivational differences between the for-profit and nonprofit groups. First, nonprofit workers attained their maximum decision utility after a longer working time, showing superior intrinsic motivation for work. Furthermore, they were ready to give up a higher percentage of their wages in order to work for another extra hour than were for-profit workers, as long as the working week was less than 33 hours. Finally, our findings show that for-profit workers placed more value on job offers with a labour contract including an explicit clause stating that higher effort will be exchanged for the employer's loyalty. In contrast, nonprofit workers did not obtain higher utility from such a deal. We interpret this result as evidence for the intrinsic motivation of people employed in the nonprofit sector. As the nature of the implicit goals pursued in the nonprofit sector provides employees with high work morale, nonprofit workers do not obtain any gain in utility from an explicit clause regarding the employer's loyalty. Copyright � 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Women are overrepresented in the public and nonprofit sectors. This article aims to bring to light the reasons behind this phenomenon. The originality of the employer-employee matched data used allows us to consider a large scope of potential reasons. Using a non-linear decomposition technique (Fairlie, 2005), we find that in addition to the well-known occupational segregation effect, the overrepresentation of women in the public and nonprofit sectors is associated with two common factors: greater offerings of family-friendly practices and higher attraction of men for certain fringe benefits that are more frequently provided by the for-profit sector. Sector-specific factors also exist. The higher wage advantage obtained by women compared with men working in the public sector rather than in the for-profit sector contributes to the feminization of the public sector. Similarly, the overrepresentation of women in the nonprofit sector is linked to greater access to part-time jobs and shorter workweeks there.

RÉSUMÉ**:  Cet article cherche à estimer, pour un échantillon issu de sept pays européens, le différentiel de satisfaction dans l'emploi entre les secteurs à but non lucratif et à but lucratif, et à en examiner les causes. La richesse des données utilisées permet, contrairement aux études antérieures, de prendre en compte les différences de caractéristiques d'emploi entre les deux secteurs. Les résultats obtenus révèlent que la plus grande satisfaction dans l'emploi des salariés du secteur à but non lucratif résulte principalement de caractéristiques mesurant l'autonomie et l'intérêt de l'emploi et d'une plus grande satisfaction vis‐à‐vis de leur autonomie et de la nature du travail qu'ils effectuent, éléments susceptibles de contribuer au développement de la motivation intrinsèque des salariés.

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