The Preference Structure of Denstists’ Job Search and Choice
Speaker(s): Elisabeth Huynh (Sydney)
Date: Thursday, 31 May 2018
Time: 12:00 - 13:00
Venue: room J-55
Contact person(s): Raf van Gestel
Abstract
Heath workforce supply decisions involve multiple stages, including searching for a job and then evaluating and choosing whether to accept a job offer. Current practice when modelling supply decisions focuses on the final evaluation or job offer stage but this potentially misses important information that can be learnt at the search stage. We address this methodological issue by conceptualising the problem as separate decision stages and provide a framework to operationalise and test the conceptualisation.
Two novel Discrete Choice Experiments were presented to a sample of 275 Australian Dentists: the first mimicked an online job search site in which respondents decide which job postings they would apply for and the second presented respondents with a job offers which they could accept/reject. Data were analysed applying a two stage choice model that incorporates the probability of application into the job offer stage. Pre-determined cut-offs or screening criteria have a large impact on the job search stage.
In general, dentists appear to make similar trade-offs across job characteristics in the job search and offer evaluation stages but the marginal propensity to select a job at the search stage differs to the offer evaluation stage for the job type (Employee, Associate Partner, Owner, Locum or Public jobs) differs. As the dentist job market becomes more corporatized and dentists become more like employees and less like small business owners, job switching/retention will become more of a focus in the marketplace. Understanding the different stages of supply decisions is important in developing models, such as job structures or incentives, to improve the job attraction and retention of dentists.