The Economics of Meaningful Work: A Scoping Review
Abstract
Meaningful work plays a central role in many people’s lives, and the topic attracts interest across a range of social science disciplines. What is the economists’ view on meaningful work? This chapter presents a scoping review on the economics of meaningful work. We identified 43 relevant English-language articles in top-quartile economics journals through a systematic search in EconLit and citation tracking. We synthesize how these studies conceptualize, perceive, and operationalize meaningful work, along with their insights into individuals’ preferences for meaningful work, how meaningful people consider their work to be, the antecedents and outcomes of meaningful work, and the broader conclusions, implications, and recommendations.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
Innovation
Sustainability
Human-Machine Systems
Workplace Spirituality and Leadership
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Economic studies in inequality, social exclusion and well-being
- Publisher
- Springer Nature Switzerland
- Pages
- 151–184
- Publication date
- 1 January 2026
- Language
- EN
- Document type
- Book chapter