The public-private pay gap: a robust quantile approach

We investigate the public-private pay gap in Italy in the period 1998-2008. Under random sampling we estimate an average wage di_erential in favour of public sector workers of about 14% for women and 4% for men, lower at the high tail of the wage distribution and in the Northern regions. The di_erential increases when also unobservable motivations that may induce workers to prefer employment in the public sector are considered, in particular above the median of the distribution, therefore suggesting that extra-motives may play an important role overall at higher wage levels.