Year: 2013
Type: report
Abstract: We analyze the incidence of public-employee health benefits.Because these benefits are negotiated through the political process, relevant labor market institutions deviate significantly from the competitive, private-sector benchmark.Empirically, we find that roughly 15 percent of the cost of recent benefit growth was passed onto school district employees through reductions in wages and salaries.Strong teachers' unions were associated with relatively strong linkages between benefit growth and growth in total compensation.We further find that when economic conditions are poor, straining public budgets, benefit growth is more readily shifted back to public employees.Our analysis is consistent with the view that the costs of public workers' benefits are difficult to monitor, contributing to benefit oriented, and often under-funded, compensation schemes.
DOI: 10.3386/w19574
Authors: Jeffrey Clemens, David Cutler
Institutions: University of California San Diego, Harvard University
Language: English
Topic: Labor Movements and Unions
Subfield: Public Administration
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3024877431