public sector pay is in line with the private sector. Our paper proposes an estimation of
differences in lifetime values of employment between public and private sectors for five
European countries. We use data from the European Community Household Panel over the
period 1994–2001 for Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Spain. We look at lifetime
values instead of wage levels because, as we show in our results, differences in earnings …
The focus of most of the current literature on public-private pay inequality is on differences in
earnings levels, however public-private differences are equally marked in terms of earnings
mobility, earnings dispersion and job loss risk. Forward-looking agents care about earnings
and job mobility as well as earnings levels, thus an assessment of the existence of a “public
premium” should be based on measures of the lifetime value of employment in either sector.
Using data from the European Community Household Panel survey, we evaluate the …