Deller, Steve (U of Wisconsin, Madison/Extension) Maher, Craig (U of Wisconsin, Oshkosh)
Abstract
This study examines patterns of total employment growth and growth in the public sector. We use data from the 50 states with a focus on the 1993 to 2004 time period. We define the public sector with respect to state government as well as local government with the latter including counties, municipalities, K-12 public schools and special districts. We maintain that given the labor intensive nature of the public sector we can assess the size of the government by monitoring public sector employment. The results clearly suggest that Wisconsin's public sector, as measured by employment, is not "out of control" and growth in the public sector is a natural by-product of growth in the overall economy.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Wisconsin, Agricultural and Applied Economics in its series Staff Paper Series with number
494.