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Resolving the Public Sector Wage Premium Puzzle by Indirect Inference

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  • Minford, Patrick

    (Cardiff Business School)

  • Wang, Yi

    (Cardiff Metropolitan University)

  • Zhou, Peng

    (Cardiff Business School)

Abstract

This paper investigates the public-sector wage premium in the UK using a microfounded economic model and indirect inference. To answer the question whether there is public-sector wage premium, we ask an equivalent question whether a model assuming perfect competition can explain the data. The neoclassical labour economic model is tested and estimated without introducing any ad hoc gap between the theoretical and empirical models. Popular econometric models are used as auxiliary models to summarise the data features, based on which we evaluate the distance between the observed data and the model-simulated data. We show that it is not the non-market factors, but the total costs and benefits of working in different sectors and so simple market forces, that create the public-sector wage premium. In other words, there is no inefficiency or unfairness in the labour market to justify government intervention. In addition, selection bias test can be incorporated into the indirect inference procedures in a straightforward way, and we find no evidence for it in the data.

Suggested Citation

  • Minford, Patrick & Wang, Yi & Zhou, Peng, 2017. "Resolving the Public Sector Wage Premium Puzzle by Indirect Inference," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2017/13, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdf:wpaper:2017/13
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public Sector Wage Premium; Selection Bias; Indirect Inference; Monte Carlo;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • C35 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions
    • 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

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