Public Sector Labor Markets

Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Joshua L. Schwarz

NBER Working Paper No. 1179 (Also Reprint No. r0849)
Issued in April 1987
NBER Program(s):   LS

This paper provides a critical survey of the literature dealing with public sector labor markets. It discusses the research by economists on wage determination in the state and local sector (including the effects of unions), on the estimation of compensating wage differentials for pecuniary and nonpecuniary job characteristics, on the effects of unions on productivity, on the estimation of public/private pay differentials, and on gender and race discrimination in the public sector. Numerous suggestions for future research are offered.

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Published: Ehrenberg, Ronald and Joshua Schwarz. "Public Sector Labor Markets." Handbook of Labor Economics, edited by Orley Ashenfelter and Richard Layard. North-Holland, 1986.

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