Public sector jobs are created because governments opt to provide goods and services produced directly by public employees. Governments, however, may also choose to regulate the size of the public sector in order to stabilize targeted national employment levels. However, economic research...

This paper formally analyzes the optimal implementation of compensation schemes where the wage cannot decrease in time. Such arrangements are commonly applied to tenured academics and civil servants. We use a finite-horizon model of moral hazard to analyze the disincentive effects and the cost...

We use data from the World Values Survey to describe and compare levels of confidence in the civil service in a series of countries, and study determinants of this confidence. Instead of focusing on citizen satisfaction with specific public services in a specific country, we analyze citizens’...

Using the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's Central Personnel Data File, the author shows that gender integration of occupations proceeded from 1976 through 1992 more rapidly and steadily in the federal civil service than in the general economy. During that period, increasing numbers of...

We estimate the size of the likely unofficial income of a household with a government official by the difference between the income that would be necessary to explain their observed home purchase behavior and the official income. Using unique and comprehensive administrative records on the House...

Public sector jobs are established by governments to directly provide goods and services. Governments may also choose to regulate the size of the public sector in order to stabilize targeted national employment levels. However, economic research suggests that these effects are uncertain and...