abstract: 'This article analyses the relationship between government spending and

  the distribution of private income between capital and labour. While

  most previous research assumes that government spending redistributes in

  favour of the less wealthy, I distinguish between types of expenditures

  that enhance the bargaining position of labour - that is, unemployment

  benefits, public sector employment and investment in new capital - and

  labour-saving and pro-business types of expenditures - that is,

  outsourcing to private firms. The results are derived from various panel

  regression techniques on a panel of 19 Organisation for Economic

  Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in the period 1985-2010

  and show that expenditures on public sector employment and, to a lesser

  extent, on new capital prevented the private wage share from declining

  further, even after controlling for labour market institutions,

  globalisation and technological change. Conversely, expenditures on

  outsourcing substantially contributed to reducing the private wage

  share. Unemployment benefits had a non-significant and negative effect

  on the private wage share because their increase was the consequence of

  higher levels of unemployment rather than policy. Implications for

  theory and policy are drawn, including the support for a public

  employment-led spending policy.'
affiliation: 'Pensiero, N (Corresponding Author), UCL, Inst Educ, Dept Educ Practice
  \& Soc, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL, England.

  Pensiero, N (Corresponding Author), UCL, Inst Educ, Ctr Learning \& Life Chances
  Knowledge Econ \& Soc, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL, England.

  Pensiero, Nicola, UCL, London, England.'
author: Pensiero, Nicola
author-email: n.pensiero@ucl.ac.uk
author_list:
- family: Pensiero
  given: Nicola
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1177/0020715217726837
eissn: 1745-2554
files: []
issn: 0020-7152
journal: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGY
keywords: 'Government outsourcing; income inequality; power relations; public

  sector employment; spending policy; wage share'
keywords-plus: 'INCOME INEQUALITY; LABORS SHARE; POWER RESOURCES; WORKERS POWER;

  EMPLOYMENT; SECTOR; MARKET; STATE; GLOBALIZATION; ORGANIZATION'
language: English
month: AUG
number: '4'
number-of-cited-references: '49'
orcid-numbers: Pensiero, Nicola/0000-0002-2823-9852
pages: 333-351
papis_id: d7396322397639955249297389471c9f
ref: Pensiero2017inhouseoutsourced
researcherid-numbers: 'Pensiero, Nicola/AAO-4734-2020

  '
times-cited: '3'
title: In-house or outsourced public services? A social and economic analysis of the
  impact of spending policy on the private wage share in OECD countries
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000408628800003
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '16'
volume: '58'
web-of-science-categories: Sociology
year: '2017'