TY - JOUR A1 - Ripoll, Guillem A1 - Breaugh, Jessica T1 - At their wits’ end? Economic stress, motivation and unethical judgement of public servants JF - Public Management Review N2 - Through an interdisciplinary approach, this paper addresses the scarcity of research that assesses economic stressors, public service motivation (PSM), work motivations, and unethical judgement in the public square. We argue that motivations have a direct relationship with the acceptance of unethical behaviour, but that economic stress (defined as financial stress and job insecurity) may influence this relationship both direct and indirectly. Using data from the European Social Survey, we develop a path model to test these hypotheses. We find that PSM and work motivation influence unethical judgements, and perceived economic stressors play an indirect role through their relationship with work motivations. Implications of the findings are discussed. KW - PSM KW - work motivation KW - economic stress KW - unethical judgement KW - ESS Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2018.1561929 IS - 21(10) ER -