What Determines the Size of Public Employment? An Empirical Investigation
This paper explores the determinants of public employment across the world and finds that it is negatively associated with country size (by population) and positively associated with the income level. The findings show that a country's opennes...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/167301565099492715/What-Determines-the-Size-of-Public-Employment-An-Empirical-Investigation http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32213 |
| Summary: | This paper explores the determinants of
public employment across the world and finds that it is
negatively associated with country size (by population) and
positively associated with the income level. The findings
show that a country's openness to trade is positively
associated with public employment in low- and middle-income
countries, but inversely related in high-income countries.
The estimated models are used to predict the expected public
employment for a country given its income, population, and
openness to trade, and to compare the actual levels with the
predicted ones. In general, public employment in Latin
American countries is below the predicted levels, except for
Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Suriname, Trinidad and
Tobago, and the República Bolivariana de Venezuela. Public
employment in the Middle East and North Africa is above the
predicted levels, particularly in the Arab Republic of Egypt
and the Islamic Republic of Iran. East Asian and Pacific
countries' public employment is significantly below the
predicted levels, particularly in Hong Kong SAR, China;
Japan; the Republic of Korea; and Mongolia. Countries in
Europe and Central Asia show higher than predicted public
employment, mostly in Romania, Denmark, Sweden, Armenia, and
Belorussia. Public employment in Sub-Saharan Africa appears
to be below the predicted levels, with the notable
exceptions of Botswana and South Africa. The deviations from
predicted levels are positively correlated with the union
density rate, which is negatively associated with private
employment rates. Finally, the study finds no statistical
association between public and private employment,
suggesting the absence of crowding-out in the employment levels. |
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