tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7342528022617501525.post720230359966990952..comments2024-03-28T15:05:33.781+13:00Comments on Economics New Zealand: We overpay, tooDonal Curtinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03687495556590450225noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7342528022617501525.post-88396561031860195792013-11-18T16:37:04.895+13:002013-11-18T16:37:04.895+13:00Thanks for the comment, I appreciate the feedback....Thanks for the comment, I appreciate the feedback. As I said in my initial post, my own (limited) experience of hiring or helping to hire people in the public sector would also have led me to believe that there wasn't a public sector premium in NZ, you're right about lawyers, and I can add the same would be true of many public sector economics and regulator functions, who wouldn't be paid what they would get in a private sector consultancy. But then the international evidence seems to be that where there is a premium, it tends to be in the lower-level jobs, and I have no personal feel for that, so all I can do is go by whatever research there is (and try and put interesting academic research in plain English, which is kind of the point of much of my blog). I agree too that 2007 is getting a bit dated, and there have been sharper pencils in public sectors around the world since then. Your point about good comparators being hard to find for some activities, that sounds right, too. I suppose what strikes me as a bit odd is that there is this immense, very detailed database available that doesn't seem to have been mined at all to throw light on questions like theseDonal Curtinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03687495556590450225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7342528022617501525.post-19401892823719070292013-11-18T16:09:33.861+13:002013-11-18T16:09:33.861+13:00I would have my doubts about the Gibson results (s...I would have my doubts about the Gibson results (speaking as an ex public-sector employer), and I am not going to study them too closely either since his results are nearly always so many years behind the times that, well, "who cares". The really large employers in the State (e.g for teachers) have no like-for-like comparison in this country. For the record private schools just build off state pay rates and add a small premium. Lawyers in the state get paid overall less than in private practice (though not always early on in their careers). And so many jobs in the State are just jobs like child welfare and caring for sick and vomiting hoons on a saturday night, that nonone in the private sector wants to do.nightnewsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00891150359343622795noreply@blogger.com