Are Chinese college graduates satisfied with serving as village officials? An evaluation with nationwide survey data

Abstract

ABSTRACTTo promote rural socio-economic development, the Chinese government has encouraged college graduates to work in villages since 2005, bringing about a novel nonmarket-determined job called graduate village official. We use nationwide survey data to analyse the determinants of job satisfaction for graduate village officials. Empirical results show that the job satisfaction of graduate village officials is basically not determined by their personal traits, but by social contexts as well as job factors. Salary, occupational pride, adaption to rural work, supports from leaders and job prospects impact more on graduate village officials’ job satisfaction than other factors. Unreasonable policy management and implementation contribute to graduate village officials’ job dissatisfaction. Finally, we briefly discuss potential policy implications of our findings.