Public-Private Sector Wage Differentials and the Business Cycle


Book Description

This paper uses microeconomic data for the period from 1990 to 2004 to examine the relationship between public-private sector wage differentials and labour market conditions in Finland. The results show that the public sector wage premium is strongly counter-cyclical. On average, a 10 percent increase in the local unemployment rate increases the public-private sector wage gap by one percent. Separate analyses by government sector and quantiles of the distribution of wages reveal that it is local government workers and those working at lower skill levels who benefit more from increasing unemployment rate. The paper also exploits the longitudinal structure of the data to examine whether the results are constant over time. These results indicate that the cyclical pattern primarily emerges in years with deteriorated labour markets.







The Public/Private Wage Differential in the Land of Gross National Happiness


Book Description

In Bhutan, the public sector is usually seen as the most desirable employer. This study asks if this can be attributed to public sector employees receiving higher wages than comparable private sector workers. To answer the question, the study combines an Oaxaca-type decomposition of wage differentials into characteristics and coefficients effects with a multinomial logit model for self-selection into labor force participation and the public or private sector. The study finds that the public/private wage differential is sizeable but can entirely be accounted for by observable characteristics. At the same time, there is strong evidence that preferences for public sector jobs are caused by pronounced intersectoral differences in overall compensation packages, in particular fringe benefits.







Relational Inequalities


Book Description

Organizations are the dominant social invention for generating resources and distributing them. Relational Inequalities develops a general sociological and organizational analysis of inequality, exploring the processes that generate inequalities in access to respect, resources, and rewards. Framing their analysis through a relational account of social and economic life, Donald Tomaskovic-Devey and Dustin Avent-Holt explain how resources are generated and distributed both within and between organizations. They show that inequalities are produced through generic processes that occur in all social relationships: categorization and their resulting status hierarchies, organizational resource pooling, exploitation, social closure, and claims-making. Drawing on a wide range of case studies, Tomaskovic-Devey and Avent-Holt focus on the workplace as the primary organization for generating inequality and provide a series of global goals to advance both a comparative organizational research model and to challenge troubling inequalities.







Wage Differentials: An International Comparison


Book Description

Wages are a vital economic variable in their influence on employment and unemployment and as the main source of personal income, affecting both living standards and labour incentives. Wage determination is studied here in an international perspective, using a common theoretical framework and statistical method through the individual country chapters to reveal similarities and differences between Japan, South Korea, the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany and France.




The Labor Market and Economic Adjustment


Book Description

This paper examines the role of the labor market in the transmission process of adjustment policies in developing countries. It begins by reviewing the recent evidence regarding the functioning of these markets. It then studies the implications of wage inertia, nominal contracts, labor market segmentation, and impediments to labor mobility for stabilization policies. The effect of labor market reforms on economic flexibility and the channels through which labor market imperfections alter the effects of structural adjustment measures are discussed next. The last part of the paper identifies a variety of issues that may require further investigation, such as the link between changes in relative wages and the distributional effects of adjustment policies.




Global Wage Report 2018/19


Book Description

The 2018/19 edition analyses the gender pay gap. The report focuses on two main challenges: how to find the most useful means for measurement, and how to break down the gender pay gap in ways that best inform policy-makers and social partners of the factors that underlie it. The report also includes a review of key policy issues regarding wages and the reduction of gender pay gaps in different national circumstances.