DOES INDONESIA HAVE A 'LOW PAY' CIVIL SERVICE?

Deon Filmer and David Lindauer

Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 2001, vol. 37, issue 2, 189-205

Abstract: Government officials and policy analysts maintain that Indonesia's civil servants are poorly paid, and have been for decades, a conclusion that is supported by anecdotal evidence and casual empiricism. In this paper, the relationship between government and private compensation levels is systematically analysed using evidence from two large household data sets, the 1998 Sakernas and the 1999 Susenas. The results suggest that government workers with a high school education or less, representing three-quarters of the civil service, earn a pay premium over their private sector counterparts. Civil servants with more than a high school education earn less than they would in the private sector but, on average, the premium is far smaller than is commonly alleged, and is in keeping with public/private differentials in other countries. The results prove robust to varying econometric specifications and cast doubt on the proposition that low pay is an explanation for government corruption.

Date: 2001
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DOI: 10.1080/00074910152390883

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Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies is currently edited by Firman Witoelar Kartaadipoetra, Arianto Patunru, Robert Sparrow, Sarah Xue Dong and Sean Muir

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