Determinants of earnings in the public and private sector in Greek labour market: The case of tertiary technological and secondary education graduates

Abstract

Internationally, there is a considerable interest on issues of wages in the public and private sector of an economy. This paper attempts to estimate the determinants of earnings of tertiary technological and secondary education graduates, working in the public and private sector of the Greek economy. The study uses earnings data from a stratified sample throughout the entire country in order to estimate earning functions both for the total economy as well as by sector. The overall results show that years of schooling, experience, marital status, sector of employment and interactive factors like years of schooling with sector of employment and gender with sector of employment have a statistically significant effect on earnings. In particular, in the public sector years of schooling, experience, marital status and interactive factors like gender with sub-sector of employment and experience with sub-sector of employment have all a strong effect on earnings. In the private sector, years of schooling, experience, marital status, size of firm and interactive factors like years of schooling with size of firm and experience with size of firm are the main determinants of earnings.