We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Are State Workers Overpaid? Survey Evidence from Liquor Privatization in Washington State.
- Authors
Chamberlain, Andrew
- Abstract
Industry privatizations that result in exogenous job displacement of public employees can be exploited to estimate public sector wage rents. I report the findings of an original survey I administered to examine how wages of displaced government workers were affected by a 2012 privatization of liquor retailing in Washington State. Based on a panel difference-in-differences estimator I find that privatization reduced wages by $2.51 per hour or 17 percent compared to a counterfactual group of nearly identical non-displaced workers, with larger effects for women. I decompose wage losses into three rents identified in the literature: public sector rents, union premiums, and industry-specific human capital. Public sector wage premiums separately account for 85 to 90 percent of overall wage losses, while union premiums and industry-specific human capital account for just 10 to 15 percent. The results are consistent with a roughly 16 percent public sector wage premium.
- Subjects
PRIVATIZATION; CIVIL service salaries; LIQUOR industry; HUMAN capital; LABOR market; DISPLACED workers
- Publication
Journal of Labor Research, 2015, Vol 36, Issue 4, p347
- ISSN
0195-3613
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s12122-015-9212-1