Volume 11, Number 2 (Spring) 1976
Smith, Sharon P. 1976. "Government Wage Differentials by Sex." Journal of Human Resources 11(2):185-199.
A model is presented for estimating a human-capital wage-rate function that accounts for the effects of differences in the strength of attachment to the labor force on the incentives to invest in human capital without requiring detailed information on work history. Using data from the May 1973 Current Population Survey tape, this model is estimated on all males and on all females to study differences in differentials between sexes and between the public and private sectors. The results suggest that sex is an important source of differences in government differentials. Women appear to enjoy a premium in wages as a result of government employment, and this premium increases with the level of government.
The author is an Associate in the Industrial Relations Section, Princeton University. Financial assistance for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. SOC74-13200A01. I would like to thank Albert Rees for helpful discussions on this study. In addition I wish to thank all the participants in the Industrial Relations Section Workshop, Princeton University, especially Orley Ashenfelter, Alan S. Blinder, Nicholas Kiefer, H. Gregg Lewis, David Metcalf, and Michael L. Wachter, for their helpful comments on model specification. Thanks also are due to Farrell Block, V. Kerry Smith, an anonymous referee, and the editor for their comments on an earlier draft. Responsibility for all errors lies with the author.
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