The Impacts of Private Experience on the Employment of Different Public Job Positions

Abstract

There have been many studies on the differences between the public and private sectors; yet, these studies often do not address differences within the public sector. This article investigates the impacts of the private sector experience on the employment of different categories of public employees: public budgeting and finance (PBF) employees, professionals, and managers. It also compares the different impacts among mixed categories of PBF professionals, non-PBF professionals, PBF managers, and non-PBF managers. The results suggest that the private sector experience increases the likelihood of a public sector employee being in a PBF or professional position, while it decreases the propensity of a public sector employee to be in a managerial position. Moreover, while private sector experience negatively correlates with public employees’ job satisfaction, the results are not significant for PBF employees and professionals, and the negative effects are much higher for non-PBF employees and nonprofessionals.