US state government privatization: Implications for social equity and inequality?

Privatization of state government services is commonplace, but our understanding of its effects is limited by data availability. We study the relationship between American state government contracting and public sector wages. Governments have used public sector employment to support a variety of goa...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public administration review 2023-01, Vol.83 (1), p.35-50
Main Author: Smith, Sarah Ausmus
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Contracting
Economic development
Educational attainment
Employment
Fairness
Fidelity
Government contracts
Inequality
New public management
Privatization
Public administration
Public sector
Race
Social development
State government
States
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Privatization of state government services is commonplace, but our understanding of its effects is limited by data availability. We study the relationship between American state government contracting and public sector wages. Governments have used public sector employment to support a variety of goals, including social equity and economic development, but privatization, as a new public management (NPM) reform, may shift the focus. Our empirical analysis shows that state privatization of service delivery is associated with decreases in the public sector wage premium, but that these effects are not driven by gender, race, or low‐levels of educational attainment. The fidelity of the implementation to NPM values conditions these effects. We also find that contracting service delivery is associated with a lower public sector wage premium for middle‐class workers.
ISSN:0033-3352
1540-6210
DOI:10.1111/puar.13565