Conference Paper
The Role of Public Employment and Wage Policy in the Dynamic of Earnings Inequality: The Tunisian Perspective
No.
ERF29AC_84
Publisher
ERF
Date
May, 2023
In this paper, we investigate the impact of public wage and employment policy on earnings inequality. The Tunisian revolution provides a breakpoint in these policies with potentially large effects on wage inequality. Based on labor force surveys from the last two decades, a recentered-influence function (RIF) decomposition is performed to assess the contribution of public policies against other relevant determinants of inequality change. We find that earnings inequality decreased significantly during the period of investigation in Tunisia, mainly due to the decrease in the public–private wage gap and in the sector wage gaps on the demand side, and the decreasing education premia on the supply side. The increase in marginal returns to average routine-task intensity jobs, the falling return to experience, and the decreasing regional wage gap also contributed to declining earnings inequality, but to a lesser extent.
Research Fellows
Mohamed Ali Marouani
Associate Professor, Université Paris1-Panthéon-Sorbonne