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Does Public-Sector Employment Fully Crowd Out Private-Sector Employment?

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  • Alberto Behar
  • Junghwan Mok

Abstract

We quantify the extent to which public-sector employment crowds out private-sector employment using specially assembled datasets for a large cross-section of developing and advanced countries. Regressions of either private-sector employment rates or unemployment rates on two measures of public-sector employment point to full crowding out. This means that high rates of public employment, which incur substantial fiscal costs, have a large negative impact on private employment rates and do not reduce overall unemployment rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Alberto Behar & Junghwan Mok, 2013. "Does Public-Sector Employment Fully Crowd Out Private-Sector Employment?," CSAE Working Paper Series 2013-20, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    • Handle: RePEc:csa:wpaper:2013-20
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Employment; Crowding out;

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy
    • H59 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Other

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