Are bureaucrats really paid like bureaucrats?

Type of content
Journal Article
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
University of Canterbury. Department of Economics and Finance
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2016
Authors
Boyle, G.
Raddemaker, S.
Abstract

In an influential paper, Hall and Liebman (QJE, 1998) ask if senior corporate executives are really paid like bureaucrats, and conclude that they are not. In this paper, we ask if senior public service bureaucrats are really paid like bureaucrats, and conclude that they too are not. However, there is an important difference: whereas the Hall and Liebman executives face high-powered performance incentives, the bureaucrats in our sample are rewarded for expanding the size of the organisations they manage. While we cannot definitively rule out the possibility that this indicates efficient compensation of bureaucrats who provide more and better services, or face greater job complexity, the balance of our evidence is more consistent with the idea that the senior public servants in our sample are, on average, rewarded for ‘empire-building’, consistent with the public choice view of bureaucracy.

Description
Citation
Boyle, G., Raddemaker, S. (2016) Are bureaucrats really paid like bureaucrats?. Corporate Ownership and Control, 13(2), pp. 478-486.
Keywords
Bureaucrats, Remuneration, Motivation, Incentives, Empire Building
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Fields of Research::35 - Commerce, management, tourism and services::3507 - Strategy, management and organisational behaviour::350710 - Organisational behaviour
Field of Research::14 - Economics::1402 - Applied Economics::140202 - Economic Development and Growth
Field of Research::17 - Psychology and Cognitive Sciences::1701 - Psychology::170107 - Industrial and Organisational Psychology
Rights
Permission granted by publisher to upload article into UC Repository 28/07/16