IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/faulre/116.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does it pay to go public? Understanding the public-private sector wage gap in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Bonaccolto-Töpfer, Marina
  • Castagnetti, Carolina
  • Prümer, Stephanie

Abstract

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel 1984-2017, this paper provides first evidence on the public-private sector wage gap in Germany based on a fixed effect quantile approach. The results reveal substantial differences in the decomposition of the gap compared to the standard cross-sectional approach. We find that women earn more in public employment, while men are penalized. Our analysis suggests that this penalization is not related to compensating wage differentials. Against the background of demographic change, the public sector may face difficulties to recruit (skilled) men and may need to adjust its pay schemes to fair and merit-based ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Bonaccolto-Töpfer, Marina & Castagnetti, Carolina & Prümer, Stephanie, 2021. "Does it pay to go public? Understanding the public-private sector wage gap in Germany," Discussion Papers 116, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:faulre:116
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/232551/1/1752570774.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Markus M. Grabka & Carsten Schröder, 2019. "The Low-Wage Sector in Germany Is Larger Than Previously Assumed," DIW Weekly Report, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 9(14), pages 117-124.
    2. Geert Dhaene & Koen Jochmans, 2015. "Split-panel Jackknife Estimation of Fixed-effect Models," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 82(3), pages 991-1030.
    3. Riphahn, Regina T., 2004. "Employment protection and effort among German employees," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 353-357, December.
    4. Bieling, Hans-Jürgen, 2008. "Liberalisierung und Privatisierung in Deutschland: Versuch einer Zwischenbilanz," WSI-Mitteilungen, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 61(10), pages 541-547.
    5. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2017. "The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(3), pages 789-865, September.
    6. Fortin, Nicole & Lemieux, Thomas & Firpo, Sergio, 2011. "Decomposition Methods in Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 1, pages 1-102, Elsevier.
    7. Ivan A. Canay, 2011. "A simple approach to quantile regression for panel data," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 14(3), pages 368-386, October.
    8. Stephanie Prümer & Claus Schnabel, 2019. "Questioning the Stereotype of the “Malingering Bureaucrat”: Absence from Work in the Public and Private Sector in Germany," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(4), pages 570-603, November.
    9. Christian Pfeifer, 2011. "Risk Aversion and Sorting into Public Sector Employment," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 12(1), pages 85-99, February.
    10. Oberfichtner Michael & Schnabel Claus, 2019. "The German Model of Industrial Relations: (Where) Does It Still Exist?," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 239(1), pages 5-37, January.
    11. John T. Addison & Claus Schnabel & Joachim Wagner, 2006. "The (Parlous) State of German Unions," Working Paper Series in Economics 23, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    12. Pérez, Javier J. & Giordano, Raffaela & Depalo, Domenico & Coutinho Pereira, Manuel & Eugène, Bruno & Papapetrou, Evangelia & Reiss, Lukas & Roter, Mojca, 2011. "The public sector pay gap in a selection of Euro area countries," Working Paper Series 1406, European Central Bank.
    13. Hospido, Laura & Moral-Benito, Enrique, 2016. "The public sector wage premium in Spain: Evidence from longitudinal administrative data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 101-122.
    14. José Mata & José A. F. Machado, 2005. "Counterfactual decomposition of changes in wage distributions using quantile regression," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(4), pages 445-465.
    15. Castagnetti, Carolina & Giorgetti, Maria Letizia, 2019. "Understanding the gender wage-gap differential between the public and private sectors in Italy: A quantile approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 240-261.
    16. Sven Jung & Claus Schnabel, 2011. "Paying More than Necessary? The Wage Cushion in Germany," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 25(2), pages 182-197, June.
    17. Christian Dustmann & Arthur Van Soest, 1997. "Wage structures in the private and public sectors in West Germany," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 18(3), pages 225-247, August.
    18. Juhn, Chinhui & Murphy, Kevin M & Pierce, Brooks, 1993. "Wage Inequality and the Rise in Returns to Skill," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(3), pages 410-442, June.
    19. Gregory, Robert G. & Borland, Jeff, 1999. "Recent developments in public sector labor markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 53, pages 3573-3630, Elsevier.
    20. Christian Dustmann & María Engracia Rochina-Barrachina, 2007. "Selection correction in panel data models: An application to the estimation of females' wage equations," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 10(2), pages 263-293, July.
    21. Bargain, Olivier & Etienne, Audrey & Melly, Blaise, 2018. "Public Sector Wage Gaps over the Long-Run: Evidence from Panel Administrative Data," IZA Discussion Papers 11924, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    22. Blaise Melly, 2005. "Public-private sector wage differentials in Germany: Evidence from quantile regression," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 505-520, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bonaccolto-Töpfer, Marina & Castagnetti, Carolina, 2021. "The COVID-19 pandemic: A threat to higher education?," Discussion Papers 117, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bonaccolto-Töpfer, Marina & Castagnetti, Carolina & Prümer, Stephanie, 2022. "Understanding the public-private sector wage gap in Germany: New evidence from a Fixed Effects quantile Approach∗," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    2. Domenico Depalo & Raffaela Giordano & Evangelia Papapetrou, 2015. "Public–private wage differentials in euro-area countries: evidence from quantile decomposition analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 985-1015, November.
    3. Carolina Castagnetti & Luisa Rosti & Marina Töpfer, 2019. "The Public-Private Sector Wage Differential Across Gender in Italy: a New Quantile-Based Decomposition Approach," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(4), pages 2533-2539.
    4. Antón, José-Ignacio & Muñoz de Bustillo, Rafael, 2013. "Public-private sector wage differentials in Spain. An updated picture in the midst of the Great Recession," MPRA Paper 48897, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Jelena Lausev, 2014. "WHAT HAS 20 YEARS OF PUBLIC–PRIVATE PAY GAP LITERATURE TOLD US? EASTERN EUROPEAN TRANSITIONING vs. DEVELOPED ECONOMIES," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 516-550, July.
    6. Prümer, Stephanie, 2021. "Sector switching in Germany," Discussion Papers 122, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    7. Tansel, Aysit & Keskin, Halil Ibrahim & Ozdemir, Zeynel Abidin, 2008. "Public versus Private Sector Wage Gap in Egypt: Evidence from Quantile Regression on Panel Data," MPRA Paper 89540, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Raffaela Giordano & Manuel Coutinho Pereira & Domenico Depalo & Bruno Eugène & Evangelia Papapetrou & Javier J. Pérez & Lukas Reiss & Mojca Roter, 2014. "The Public Sector Pay Gap in a Selection of Euro Area Countries in the Pre-crisis Period," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 214(3), pages 11-34, September.
    9. Hospido, Laura & Moral-Benito, Enrique, 2016. "The public sector wage premium in Spain: Evidence from longitudinal administrative data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 101-122.
    10. Louis Christofides & Maria Michael, 2013. "Exploring the public-private sector wage gap in European countries," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-53, December.
    11. Raúl Ramos & Esteban Sanromá & Hipólito Simón, 2014. "Public-Private Sector Wage Differentials by Type of Contract: Evidence from Spain," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 208(1), pages 107-141, March.
    12. Joanna Tyrowicz & Lucas van der Velde, 2017. "When the opportunity knocks: large structural shocks and gender wage gaps," GRAPE Working Papers 2, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    13. repec:pra:mprapa:48888 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Prümer, Stephanie, 2019. "Ist der Staat der bessere Arbeitgeber? Arbeitsqualität im Öffentlichen und Privaten Sektor in Deutschland," Discussion Papers 107, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    15. Ana Fernandes & Martin Huber & Giannina Vaccaro, 2021. "Gender differences in wage expectations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(6), pages 1-24, June.
    16. Joanna Małgorzata Landmesser, 2019. "Decomposition Of Gender Wage Gap In Poland Using Counterfactual Distribution With Sample Selection," Statistics in Transition New Series, Polish Statistical Association, vol. 20(3), pages 171-186, September.
    17. Nikolic, Jelena & Rubil, Ivica & Tomić, Iva, 2017. "Pre-crisis reforms, austerity measures and the public-private wage gap in two emerging economies," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 248-265.
    18. Stephanie Prümer & Claus Schnabel, 2019. "Questioning the Stereotype of the “Malingering Bureaucrat”: Absence from Work in the Public and Private Sector in Germany," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(4), pages 570-603, November.
    19. Joanna Landmesser, 2016. "Decomposition of differences In income distributions Using quantile regression," Statistics in Transition new series, Główny Urząd Statystyczny (Polska), vol. 17(2), pages 331-348, June.
    20. Gimpelson, Vladimir & Lukiyanova, Anna & Sharunina, Anna, 2019. "Economics and Politics of the Public-Private Wage Gap (The Case of Russia)," IZA Discussion Papers 12247, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Joanna Małgorzata Landmesser, 2016. "Decomposition Of Differences In Income Distributions Using Quantile Regression," Statistics in Transition New Series, Polish Statistical Association, vol. 17(2), pages 331-348, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public-Private Sector Wage Gap; Quantile Regression for Panel Data; Germany;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:faulre:116. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vierlde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.