IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp1828.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Public Sector Pay and Regional Competitiveness: A First Look at Regional Public-Private Wage Differentials in Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Dell’Aringa, Carlo

    (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)

  • Lucifora, Claudio

    (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)

  • Origo, Federica

    (University of Bergamo)

Abstract

This paper investigates regional public-private wage differentials in Italy. Following the recent wave of reforms that significantly changed wage setting and employment relations in both sectors – increasing decentralisation in collective bargaining and enforcing a "privatisation" of public sector employment contracts - we present new estimates of the public-private wage gap by geographical location. We report both 'standardised' public-private wage differentials, as well as estimates obtained using Geographically Weighted Regressions methods. We show that significant differences exist in public-private wage differentials across Italian regions, and that the latter can be partly explained by local labour market conditions affecting the private sector and only marginally the public sector. Differences in public-private wage differentials across regions are expected to determine several imbalances in terms of 'wait' unemployment and recruitment problems in the different areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Dell’Aringa, Carlo & Lucifora, Claudio & Origo, Federica, 2005. "Public Sector Pay and Regional Competitiveness: A First Look at Regional Public-Private Wage Differentials in Italy," IZA Discussion Papers 1828, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1828
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp1828.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Claudio Lucifora & Dominique Meurs, 2006. "The Public Sector Pay Gap In France, Great Britain And Italy," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 52(1), pages 43-59, March.
    2. Andrew Henley & Dennis Thomas, 2001. "Public Service Employment and the Public- Private Wage Differential in British Regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 229-240.
    3. Claudio Lucifora & Federica Origo, 1999. "Alla ricerca della flessibilità: un'analisi della curva dei salari in Italia," Rivista italiana degli economisti, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 3-36.
    4. Carlo Dell'Aringa & Federica Origo & Manuela Samek Lodovici, 1999. "Il mercato del lavoro nel Mezzogiorno: il ruolo del costo e della flessibilità del lavoro," L'industria, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 2, pages 251-262.
    5. McDonald, Ian M & Solow, Robert M, 1981. "Wage Bargaining and Employment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(5), pages 896-908, December.
    6. Disney, Richard F & Gosling, Amanda, 2003. "A New Method for Estimating Public Sector Pay Premia: Evidence from Britain in the 1990's," CEPR Discussion Papers 3787, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Reimers, Cordelia W, 1983. "Labor Market Discrimination against Hispanic and Black Men," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(4), pages 570-579, November.
    8. Albert Alesina & Stephan Danninger & Massimo Rostagno, 2001. "Redistribution Through Public Employment: The Case of Italy," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 48(3), pages 1-2.
    9. repec:bla:scandj:v:92:y:1990:i:2:p:215-35 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Robert Elliott & Claudio Lucifora & Dominique Meurs, 1999. "Public Sector Pay Determination in the European Union: Issues and Outcomes," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Robert Elliott & Claudio Lucifora & Dominique Meurs (ed.), Public Sector Pay Determination in the European Union, chapter 1, pages 1-28, Palgrave Macmillan.
    11. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra E. Todd, 1997. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator: Evidence from Evaluating a Job Training Programme," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(4), pages 605-654.
    12. Robert Elliott & Claudio Lucifora & Dominique Meurs (ed.), 1999. "Public Sector Pay Determination in the European Union," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-14946-9, December.
    13. repec:bla:scandj:v:87:y:1985:i:2:p:160-93 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Claudio Lucifora, 1999. "Rules vs. Bargaining: Pay Determination in the Italian Public Sector," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Robert Elliott & Claudio Lucifora & Dominique Meurs (ed.), Public Sector Pay Determination in the European Union, chapter 5, pages 138-190, Palgrave Macmillan.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Domenico Depalo & Raffaella Giordano, 2011. "The public-private pay gap: a robust quantile approach," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 70(1), pages 25-64, January.
    2. Paolo Ghinetti & Claudio Lucifora, 2008. "Public Sector Pay Gaps and Skill Levels: a Cross-Country Comparison," Working Papers 118, SEMEQ Department - Faculty of Economics - University of Eastern Piedmont.
    3. Bargain, Olivier B. & Melly, Blaise, 2008. "Public Sector Pay Gap in France: New Evidence Using Panel Data," IZA Discussion Papers 3427, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Claudio Lucifora & Dominique Meurs, 2006. "The Public Sector Pay Gap In France, Great Britain And Italy," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 52(1), pages 43-59, March.
    5. Philip Murphy & David Blackaby & Nigel O'Leary & Anita Staneva, 2020. "Understanding What Has Been Happening to the Public‐Sector Pay Premium in Great Britain: A Distributional Approach Based on the Labour Force Survey," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(2), pages 273-300, June.
    6. Vladimir Gimpelson & Anna Lukiyanova & Anna Sharunina, 2015. "Estimating the Public-Private Wage Gap in Russia: What Does Quantile Regression Tell Us?," HSE Working papers WP BRP 104/EC/2015, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    7. Gabriela Grotkowska & Leszek Wincenciak & Tomasz Gajderowicz, 2017. "Evolution of the Public-Sector Wage Premium in Poland," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 1, pages 5-31.
    8. Evangelia Papapetrou, 2006. "The Public-Private Sector Pay Differential in Greece," Public Finance Review, , vol. 34(4), pages 450-473, July.
    9. Raúl Ramos & Esteban Sanromá & Hipólito Simón, 2014. "Public-Private Sector Wage Differentials by Type of Contract: Evidence from Spain," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 208(1), pages 107-141, March.
    10. Lixin Cai & Amy Y.C. Liu, 2008. "Public-Private Wage Gap in Australia: Variation Along the Distribution," CEPR Discussion Papers 581, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    11. Axel Heitmueller, 2006. "Public-private sector pay differentials in a devolved Scotland," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 9, pages 295-323, November.
    12. 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 115-131.
    13. Raúl Ramos & Esteban Sanromá & Hipólito Simón, 2014. "Public-Private Sector Wage Differentials by Type of Contract: Evidence from Spain," Hacienda Pública Española, IEF, vol. 208(1), pages 107-141, March.
    14. Alejandra Mizala & Pilar Romaguera & Sebastian Gallegos, 2010. "Public-Private Wage Gap In Latin America (1999-2007): A Matching Approach," Documentos de Trabajo 268, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Chile.
    15. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:3573-3630 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Monojit Chatterji & Karen Mumford & Peter N Smith, 2007. "The Public-Private Sector Wage Differential: Gender, Workplaces and Family Friendliness," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 202, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.
    18. John William Hatfield & Fuhito Kojima & Yusuke Narita, 2011. "Promoting School Competition Through School Choice: A Market Design Approach," Working Papers 2011-018, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    19. 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, July.
    20. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/5tqdseqksb93a9s4o6tla4ftjs is not listed on IDEAS
    21. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/5tqdseqksb93a9s4o6tla4ftjs is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Gimpelson, Vladimir & Lukiyanova, Anna & Sharunina, Anna, 2019. "Economics and Politics of the Public-Private Wage Gap (The Case of Russia)," IZA Discussion Papers 12247, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    23. 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, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    public-private wage differentials; regional labour market; geographically weighted regressions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1828. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.