IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp9965.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Public Wages, Public Employment, and Business Cycle Volatility: Evidence from U.S. Metro Areas

Author

Listed:
  • Boeing-Reicher, Claire A.

    (Kiel Institute for the World Economy)

  • Caponi, Vincenzo

    (CREST)

Abstract

Based on data from a cross section of U.S. metro areas, we show that public employment correlates negatively with business cycle volatility, hinting at a stabilizing effect of public employment, while public wages correlate weakly and positively with business cycle volatility, hinting at a destabilizing effect of public wages. To explain these relationships, we set up a search and matching model that contains a government sector and a role for government spending in product markets. This latter mechanism affects how the outside option behaves, and this mechanism can help a search and matching model to generate wage-reducing and stabilizing effects of public employment. Without this mechanism, a search and matching model cannot generate these effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Boeing-Reicher, Claire A. & Caponi, Vincenzo, 2016. "Public Wages, Public Employment, and Business Cycle Volatility: Evidence from U.S. Metro Areas," IZA Discussion Papers 9965, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9965
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp9965.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher A. Pissarides & Barbara Petrongolo, 2001. "Looking into the Black Box: A Survey of the Matching Function," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(2), pages 390-431, June.
    2. Afonso, António & Gomes, Pedro, 2014. "Interactions between private and public sector wages," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 39(PA), pages 97-112.
    3. Fatas, Antonio & Mihov, Ilian, 2001. "Government size and automatic stabilizers: international and intranational evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 3-28, October.
    4. Timothy J. Bartik, 1991. "Who Benefits from State and Local Economic Development Policies?," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number wbsle, December.
    5. James Albrecht & Monica Robayo-Abril & Susan Vroman, 2019. "Public-sector Employment in an Equilibrium Search and Matching Model," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(617), pages 35-61.
    6. Andres, Javier & Domenech, Rafael & Fatas, Antonio, 2008. "The stabilizing role of government size," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 571-593, February.
    7. Vincenzo Quadrini & Antonella Trigari, 2007. "Public Employment and the Business Cycle," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 109(4), pages 723-742, December.
    8. Gali, Jordi, 1994. "Government size and macroeconomic stability," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 117-132, January.
    9. George J. Borjas, 2002. "The Wage Structure and the Sorting of Workers into the Public Sector," NBER Working Papers 9313, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Silva, José Ignacio & Toledo, Manuel, 2009. "Labor Turnover Costs And The Cyclical Behavior Of Vacancies And Unemployment," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(S1), pages 76-96, May.
    11. Caponi, Vincenzo, 2017. "Public employment policies and regional unemployment differences," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-12.
    12. Pedro Gomes, 2015. "Optimal Public Sector Wages," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(587), pages 1425-1451, September.
    13. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/23tsoiu9ve8lubqe4pa2of8d7d is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Burdett, Ken, 2012. "Towards a theory of the labor market with a public sector," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 68-75.
    15. Robert Shimer, 2005. "The Cyclical Behavior of Equilibrium Unemployment and Vacancies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 25-49, March.
    16. Olivier Blanchard & Roberto Perotti, 2002. "An Empirical Characterization of the Dynamic Effects of Changes in Government Spending and Taxes on Output," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(4), pages 1329-1368.
    17. Burdett, Kenneth & Mortensen, Dale T, 1998. "Wage Differentials, Employer Size, and Unemployment," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(2), pages 257-273, May.
    18. Baxter, Marianne & King, Robert G, 1993. "Fiscal Policy in General Equilibrium," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(3), pages 315-334, June.
    19. Lutkepohl, Helmut, 1990. "Asymptotic Distributions of Impulse Response Functions and Forecast Error Variance Decompositions of Vector Autoregressive Models," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(1), pages 116-125, February.
    20. Justin Falk, 2012. "Comparing Benefits and Total Compensation in the Federal Government and the Private Sector: Working Paper 2012-04," Working Papers 42923, Congressional Budget Office.
    21. Reicher, Claire, 2014. "A set of estimated fiscal rules for a cross-section of countries: Stabilization and consolidation through which instruments?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 184-198.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Fontaine, Idriss & Gálvez-Iniesta, Ismael & Gomes, Pedro & Vila-Martin, Diego, 2020. "Labour market flows: Accounting for the public sector," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    2. Caponi, Vincenzo, 2017. "Public employment policies and regional unemployment differences," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-12.
    3. Rattsø, Jørn & Stokke, Hildegunn E., 2019. "Identification of the private-public wage gap," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 153-163.
    4. Vincenzo Caponi & Simone Nobili, 2024. "The effects of public sector employment on the economy," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 3322-3322, June.
    5. Alberto Chong & Angelo Cozzubo, 2019. "Perverse Incentives? Labor Market Regulation and Performance in the Public Sector," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(1), pages 271-285, July.
    6. Nalban, Valeriu & Smădu, Andra, 2021. "The interaction between private sector and public sector labor markets: Evidence from Romania," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 804-821.

    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. Claire Boeing-Reicher & Vincenzo Caponi, 2024. "Public wages, public employment, and business cycle volatility: Evidence from U.S. metro areas," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 54, October.
    2. Jofre-Monseny, Jordi & Silva, José I. & Vázquez-Grenno, Javier, 2020. "Local labor market effects of public employment," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. Bettoni, Luis G. & Santos, Marcelo R., 2022. "Public sector employment and aggregate fluctuations," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    4. Michaillat, Pascal, 2011. "Fiscal Multipliers Over the Business Cycle," CEPR Discussion Papers 8610, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Fève, Patrick & Matheron, Julien & Sahuc, Jean-Guillaume, 2011. "Externality in labor supply and government spending," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 112(3), pages 273-276, September.
    6. Shuaizhang Feng & Naijia Guo, 2019. "Labor Market Dynamics in Urban China and the Role of the State Sector," Working Papers 2019-008, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    7. Monacelli, Tommaso & Perotti, Roberto & Trigari, Antonella, 2010. "Unemployment fiscal multipliers," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(5), pages 531-553, July.
    8. Kuo Chun-Hung & Miyamoto Hiroaki, 2019. "Fiscal stimulus and unemployment dynamics," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(2), pages 1-19, June.
    9. Fontaine, Idriss & Gálvez-Iniesta, Ismael & Gomes, Pedro & Vila-Martin, Diego, 2020. "Labour market flows: Accounting for the public sector," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    10. Geromichalos, Athanasios & Kospentaris, Ioannis, 2022. "The unintended consequences of meritocratic government hiring," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    11. Pedro Gomes, 2009. "Labour market effects of public sector employment and wages," 2009 Meeting Papers 313, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    12. Feng, Shuaizhang & Guo, Naijia, 2021. "Labor market dynamics in urban China and the role of the state sector," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 918-932.
    13. Pascal Jacquinot & Matija Lozej & Massimiliano Pisani, 2018. "Labor Tax Reforms, Cross-Country Coordination, and the Monetary Policy Stance in the Euro Area: A Structural Model-Based Approach," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 14(3), pages 65-140, June.
    14. Chassamboulli, Andri & Gomes, Pedro, 2023. "Public-sector employment, wages and education decisions," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    15. Lucas Navarro & Mauricio Tejada, 2022. "Does Public Sector Employment Buffer the Minimum Wage Effects?," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 43, pages 168-196, January.
    16. Andri Chassamboulli & Pedro Gomes, 2021. "Jumping the queue: nepotism and public-sector pay," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 39, pages 344-366, January.
    17. Feng, Shuaizhang & Guo, Naijia, 2019. "Labor Market Dynamics in Urban China and the Role of the State Sector," IZA Discussion Papers 12170, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Andres, Javier & Domenech, Rafael & Fatas, Antonio, 2008. "The stabilizing role of government size," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 571-593, February.
    19. Jacquinot, Pascal & Lozej, Matija & Pisani, Massimiliano, 2022. "Macroeconomic effects of tariffs shocks: The role of the effective lower bound and the labour market," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    20. Isabel Cairó & Tomaz Cajner, 2018. "Human Capital and Unemployment Dynamics: Why More Educated Workers Enjoy Greater Employment Stability," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(609), pages 652-682, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    search and matching; crowding out; business cycle volatility; public wages; public employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E63 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Comparative or Joint Analysis of Fiscal and Monetary Policy; Stabilization; Treasury Policy
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

    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:dp9965. 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.