Incentives and Work

An interesting article which is also very germane to academic physicians. In particular the sentence “what drives most academics to the university on a given day (including evenings and weekends) is not the money (otherwise we would work in the private sector) or the stability of the income stream (because the probability of losing a job is close to zero for a tenured academic). In fact, Stern (2004) shows that “scientists pay to be scientists.”  is right on the spot. One can say about physicians in academia that they “pay to be in academics”. In almost every case, they can earn quite a bit more in private practice. It is the meaning in their work that motivates them.