Public vs. private sector earnings differentials in the Caribbean region: evidence from the economy of trinidad & tobago

Addington Coppin and Reed Neil Olsen ()
Additional contact information
Reed Neil Olsen: Oakland University, USA

Journal of Developing Areas, 2007, vol. 40, issue 2, 51-74

Abstract: This article uses 1993 data from the Trinidad and Tobago Continuous Sample Survey of the Population to investigate patterns of remuneration across its public and private sectors. Unlike results from developed countries, the large earnings premium to public sector workers in Trinidad & Tobago appears to be explained more so by differences in returns to characteristics valued by the labor market than by differences in levels of these characteristics. The large public sector earnings premium is also more likely to benefit the most disadvantaged workers in the economy, Africans and women. These two findings highlight the possibility that the government is using its ability to pay its workers differentially in order to offset private sector ethnic and gender discrimination. Hence, the current move towards privatization of nationalized industries in Trinidad and Tobago is likely to have the impact of increasing ethnic and gender earnings inequity.

Keywords: Public Sector; Earnings Premium; Discrimination; Wage Decomposition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J7 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jda/summary/v040/40.2coppin.html

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jda:journl:vol.40:year:2007:issue2:pp:51-74

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Developing Areas from Tennessee State University, College of Business Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Abu N.M. Wahid ().