Browse IFS
Publication types
Journal Articles
November 1998
Article
Does it pay to work in the public sector?
Type: Journal Articles
Authors: Richard Disney and Amanda Gosling
ISSN: Print: 0143-5671 Online: 1475-5890
Volume, issue, pages: Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 347-374
JEL classification: J31, J45.

Download BibTex file | 

This paper uses microeconomic data from the British Household Panel and General Household

Surveys to describe how the distribution of pay differs between the public and private sectors in

1983 and in the early 1990s. Separate analyses by gender and education group reveal that it is

women and those with intermediate-level qualifications who do best in the public sector. The large differences between the shapes of the conditional (that is, holding age and education constant)distributions of wages in the public and private sectors are demonstrated using quantile regressions estimated separately for each education group. The paper also exploits the longitudinal structure of the data used to assess how much of these differences can be explained by the unobserved characteristics of individuals.

Download full version (PDF 120 KB)

Search

Title (or part of title)
Author surname (or part of surname)