IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Log in (now much improved!) to save this paper

Public-Private Sector Wage Differentials by Type of Contract: Evidence from Spain

Author Info

  • Ramos, Raul

    ()

    (University of Barcelona)

  • Sanromá, Esteban

    ()

    (University of Barcelona)

  • Simón, Hipólito

    ()

    (Universidad de Alicante)

Abstract

The article examines public-private sector wage differentials in Spain using microdata from the Structure of Earnings Survey (Encuesta de Estructura Salarial). When applying various decomposition techniques, we find that it is important to distinguish by gender and type of contract. Our results also highlight the presence of a positive wage premium for public sector workers that can be partially explained by their better endowment of characteristics, in particular by the characteristics of the establishment where they work. The wage premium is greater for female and fixed-term employees and falls across the wage distribution, being negative for more highly skilled workers.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. 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.

File URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp8158.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 8158.

as
in new window

Length: 34 pages
Date of creation: Apr 2014
Date of revision:
Publication status: published in: Hacienda Pública Española/Review of Public Economics, 2014, 208 (1), 107-141
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8158
Contact details of provider: Postal:
IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Phone: +49 228 3894 223
Fax: +49 228 3894 180
Web page: http://www.iza.org

Order Information: Postal: IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
Email:


Keywords: public-private sector wage gap; decomposition methods; matched employer-employee data; wage distribution;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • C2 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables
  • E3 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles
  • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
  • J4 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

as in new window
  1. Patricia Apps & Ray Rees, 2005. "Gender, Time Use and Public Policy Over the Life Cycle," CEPR Discussion Papers 500, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
  2. J. Ignacio Garcia-Perez & Juan F. Jimeno, 2007. "Public Sector Wage Gaps In Spanish Regions," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 75(4), pages 501-531, 07.
  3. Browning, Martin, 1992. "Children and Household Economic Behavior," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(3), pages 1434-75, September.
  4. Aloysius Siow, 1996. "Differential Fecundity, Markets and Gender Roles," Working Papers siow-96-01, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
  5. Zweimuller, J & Winter-Ebmer, R, 1994. "Gender Wage Differentials in Private and Public Sector Jobs," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 7(3), pages 271-85, July.
  6. Hamermesh, Daniel, 2008. "Fun with matched firm-employee data: Progress and road maps," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 662-672, August.
  7. Bergstrom, Theodore C & Bagnoli, Mark, 1993. "Courtship as a Waiting Game," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(1), pages 185-202, February.
  8. Pereira, Pedro Telhado & Martins, Pedro Silva, 2002. "Does Education Reduce Wage Inequality? Quantile Regressions Evidence from Fifteen European Countries," Discussion Papers 709, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
  9. Buchinsky, Moshe, 1994. "Changes in the U.S. Wage Structure 1963-1987: Application of Quantile Regression," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(2), pages 405-58, March.
  10. Budría, Santiago & Moro-Egido, Ana I., 2008. "Education, educational mismatch, and wage inequality: Evidence for Spain," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 332-341, June.
  11. Gianni De Fraja, 2009. "The Origin of Utility: Sexual Selection and Conspicuous Consumption," Post-Print hal-00703547, HAL.
  12. Schoeni, Robert F, 1995. "Marital Status and Earnings in Developed Countries," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 8(4), pages 351-59, November.
  13. Maria Manuel Campos & Mário Centeno, 2012. "Public-private wage gaps in the period prior to the adoption of the euro: an application based on longitudinal data," Working Papers w201201, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
  14. James M. Poterba & Kim S. Rueben, 1994. "The Distribution of Public Sector Wage Premia: New Evidence Using Quantile Regression Methods," NBER Working Papers 4734, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  15. Giordano, Raffaela & Depalo, Domenico & Coutinho Pereira, Manuel & Eugène, Bruno & Papapetrou, Evangelia & Pérez, Javier J. & Reiss, Lukas & Roter, Mojca, 2011. "The public sector pay gap in a selection of Euro area countries," Working Paper Series 1406, European Central Bank.
  16. 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.
  17. Phelps, Charlotte D., 1998. "Gender differences in the long-term economic consequences of parental divorce," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 151-168, October.
  18. Theodore C. Bergstrom, 1996. "Economics in a Family Way," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 34(4), pages 1903-1934, December.
  19. Nidardo, J. & Fortin, N. & Lemieux, T., 1994. "Labor Market Institutions and the Distribution of Wages, 1973-1992: A Semiparametric Approach," Papers 93-94-15, California Irvine - School of Social Sciences.
  20. Tomas Kögel, 2004. "Did the association between fertility and female employment within OECD countries really change its sign?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 17(1), pages 45-65, February.
  21. Marta Arespa, 2011. "A New Open Economy Macroeconomic Model with Endogenous Portfolio Diversifi cation and Firms Entry," Working Papers XREAP2011-15, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Oct 2011.
  22. Antje Mertens & Vanessa Gash & Frances McGinnity, 2007. "The Cost of Flexibility at the Margin. Comparing the Wage Penalty for Fixed-term Contracts in Germany and Spain using Quantile Regression," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 21(4-5), pages 637-666, December.
  23. Juan Luís Jiménez & Jordi Perdiguero, 2009. "(No)competition in the Spanish retailing gasoline market: a variance filter approach," Working Papers XREAP2009-05, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised May 2009.
  24. Dustmann, Christian & van Soest, Arthur, 1998. "Public and private sector wages of male workers in Germany," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(8), pages 1417-1441, September.
  25. Xavier Fageda & Jordi Perdiguero, 2011. "An empirical analysis of a merger between a network and low-cost airlines," Working Papers XREAP2011-01, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised May 2011.
  26. Suen, Wing & Chan, William & Zhang, Junsen, 2003. "Marital transfer and intra-household allocation: a Nash-bargaining analysis," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 133-146, September.
  27. Xosé-Luís Varela-Irimia, 2011. "Age effects, unobserved characteristics and hedonic price indexes: The Spanish car market in the 1990?s," Working Papers XREAP2011-11, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Aug 2011.
  28. 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.
  29. Todd E. Elder & John H. Goddeeris & Steven J. Haider, 2009. "Unexplained Gaps and Oaxaca-Blinder Decompositions," CEPR Discussion Papers 600, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
  30. Hugo Nopo, 2003. "Matching as a Tool to Decompose Wage Gaps," Middlebury College Working Paper Series 0406, Middlebury College, Department of Economics.
  31. Ernest Miguele & Rosina Moreno, 2012. "Do labour mobility and networks foster geographical knowledge diffusion? The case of European regions," Working Papers XREAP2012-14, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Jul 2012.
  32. Dolado, Juan J. & Garcia-Serrano, Carlos & Jimeno, Juan F, 2001. "Drawing Lessons From the Boom of Temporary Jobs in Spain," CEPR Discussion Papers 2884, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  33. Oaxaca, Ronald, 1973. "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 14(3), pages 693-709, October.
  34. Bargain, Olivier & Melly, Blaise, 2008. "Public Sector Pay Gap in France: New Evidence Using Panel Data," IZA Discussion Papers 3427, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  35. Sharon P. Smith, 1976. "Government Wage Differentials by Sex," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 11(2), pages 185-199.
  36. Mincer, Jacob & Polachek, Solomon, 1974. "Family Investment in Human Capital: Earnings of Women," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(2), pages S76-S108, Part II, .
  37. David Neumark, 1987. "Employers' discriminatory behavior and the estimation of wage discrimination," Special Studies Papers 227, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
  38. Lassibille, Gerard, 1998. "Wage Gaps Between the Public and Private Sectors in Spain," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 83-92, February.
  39. Morley Gunderson, 1979. "Earnings Differentials between the Public and Private Sectors," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 12(2), pages 228-42, May.
  40. Claudio Lucifora & Dominique Meurs, 2004. "The Public Sector Pay Gap in France, Great Britain and Italy," CHILD Working Papers wp04_04, CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY.
  41. Richard B. Freeman & Lawrence F. Katz, 1995. "Differences and Changes in Wage Structures," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number free95-1, May.
  42. Adamchik, Vera A. & Bedi, Arjun S., 2000. "Wage differentials between the public and the private sectors: evidence from an economy in transition," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 203-224, March.
  43. Lena Edlund & Evelyn Korn, 2002. "A Theory of Prostitution," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(1), pages 181-214, February.
  44. Matteo PICCHIO, 2006. "Wage Differentials between Temporary and Permanent Workers in Italy," Working Papers 257, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
  45. Oaxaca, Ronald L. & Ransom, Michael R., 1994. "On discrimination and the decomposition of wage differentials," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 5-21, March.
  46. Rees, Hedley & Shah, Anup, 1995. "Public-Private Sector Wage Differential in the U.K," The Manchester School of Economic & Social Studies, University of Manchester, vol. 63(1), pages 52-68, March.
  47. Marta Arespa, 2011. "Macroeconomics of extensive margins: a simple model," Working Papers XREAP2011-19, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Nov 2011.
  48. Budria, Santiago, 2006. "Schooling and the distribution of wages in the european private and public sectors," MPRA Paper 90, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  49. Abel Lucena, 2009. "The antecedents and innovation consequences of organizational search: empirical evidence for Spain," Working Papers XREAP2009-08, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Oct 2009.
  50. Simona COMI & Mara GRASSENI, 2009. "Are Temporary Workers Discriminated Against? Evidence from Europe," CHILD Working Papers wp17_09, CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY.
  51. Anderson, Gary M. & Tollison, Robert D., 1998. "Celestial marriage and earthly rents: Interests and the prohibition of polygamy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 169-181, October.
  52. Lixin Cai & Amy Y. C. Liu, 2011. "Public–Private Sector Wage Gap in Australia: Variation along the Distribution," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 49(2), pages 362-390, 06.
  53. Gimpelson, Vladimir & Lukiyanova, Anna, 2009. "Are Public Sector Workers Underpaid in Russia? Estimating the Public-Private Wage Gap," IZA Discussion Papers 3941, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  54. Ronald L. Oaxaca & Michael R. Ransom, 1999. "Identification in Detailed Wage Decompositions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(1), pages 154-157, February.
  55. Amanda Gosling & Stephen Machin & Costas Meghir, 1994. "The changing distribution of male wages in the UK," IFS Working Papers W94/13, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  56. Yun, Myeong-Su, 2003. "A Simple Solution to the Identification Problem in Detailed Wage Decompositions," IZA Discussion Papers 836, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  57. Sharon P. Smith, 1976. "Pay Differentials between Federal Government and Private Sector Workers," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 29(2), pages 179-197, January.
  58. Sarah Brown & John G. Sessions, 2005. "Employee Attitudes, Earnings and Fixed-Term Contracts: International Evidence," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 141(2), pages 296-317, July.
  59. Francisco de Castro & Matteo Salto & Hugo Steiner, 2013. "The gap between public and private wages: new evidence for the EU," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 508, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
  60. Goldin, Claudia, 1992. "Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195072709, December.
  61. Hartog, Joop & Oosterbeek, Hessel, 1993. "Public and private sector wages in the Netherlands," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 97-114, January.
  62. Martins, Pedro S. & Pereira, Pedro T., 2004. "Does education reduce wage inequality? Quantile regression evidence from 16 countries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 355-371, June.
  63. Blaise Melly, 2005. "Public-private sector wage differentials in Germany: Evidence from quantile regression," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 505-520, 09.
  64. O Blanchard & A Landier, 2002. "The Perverse Effects of Partial Labour Market Reform: fixed--Term Contracts in France," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(480), pages F214-F244, June.
  65. 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 410-42, June.
  66. Melly, Blaise, 2005. "Decomposition of differences in distribution using quantile regression," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 577-590, August.
  67. Bender, Keith A, 1998. " The Central Government-Private Sector Wage Differential," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), pages 177-220, April.
  68. Peter Siminski, 2013. "Are low-skill public sector workers really overpaid? A quasi-differenced panel data analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(14), pages 1915-1929, May.
  69. Theodore C. Bergstrom, 2007. "Some Evolutionary Economics of Family Partnerships," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(2), pages 482-486, May.
  70. Anna Matas & Josep Lluís Raymond & José Luis Roig, 2013. "How market access shapes human capital investment in a peripheral country," Working Papers XREAP2013-06, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Oct 2013.
  71. Mizala, Alejandra & Romaguera, Pilar & Gallegos, Sebastián, 2011. "Public–private wage gap in Latin America (1992–2007): A matching approach," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(S1), pages S115-S131.
  72. María A. Davia & Virginia Hernanz, . "Temporary Employment and Segmentation in the Spanish Labour Market: An Empirical Analysis through the Study of Wage Differentials," Working Papers 2002-26, FEDEA.
  73. Rebekka Christopoulou & Vassilis Monastiriotis, 2014. "The Greek Public Sector Wage Premium before the Crisis: Size, Selection and Relative Valuation of Characteristics," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 52(3), pages 579-602, 09.
  74. Vicente Royuela, 2012. "What about people in European Regional Science?," Working Papers XREAP2012-12, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised May 2012.
  75. Gary S. Becker, 1981. "A Treatise on the Family," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck81-1, May.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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

as in new window


Cited by:

  1. Laura Hospido & Enrique Moral-Benito, 2014. "The public sector wage premium in Spain: evidence from longitudinal administrative data," Working Papers 1422, Banco de España;Working Papers Homepage.
  2. Paola Naddeo, 2015. "The Wage Effects Of Fixed-Term Contracts," RIEDS - Rivista Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica - Italian Review of Economics, Demography and Statistics, SIEDS Societa' Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, vol. 0(4), pages 63-72, October-D.

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Access and download statistics

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8158. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Mark Fallak)

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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

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

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.