Fiscal Institutions and Public Sector Labor Markets / James M. Poterba, Kim S. Rueben.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Poterba, James M.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Rueben, Kim S.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w6659.

NBER working paper series no. w6659

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1998.

Summary:

This paper investigates how state and local fiscal institutions affect the pattern of relative wages between state and local government employees and their private sector counterparts. It focuses on changes in relative wages during the 1979-1986 period. Empirical analysis of data from the Current Population Survey suggests that in places with limitations on local property taxes, and to a lesser extent state-level tax and expenditure caps, public sector wages grew more slowly than the wages paid to comparable workers in the private sector. The differential movement of public sector and private sector wages is particularly pronounced for college-educated women who work in the local public sector. Many of these employees are public school teachers. There is some evidence that the impact of fiscal limits is most pronounced in the years immediately following their adoption, and that the effect of these limits weakens over time.

Notes:

Print version record

July 1998.