HKS Affiliated Authors
Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics, FAS
Excerpt
Excerpt
Shrouded Costs of Government: The Political Economy of State and Local Public Pensions. Edward Glaeser, April 2013, Paper. "Why are public-sector workers so heavily compensated with pensions and other non-pecuniary benefits? In this paper, we present a political economy model of shrouded compensation in which politicians compete for taxpayers' and public employees' votes by promising compensation packages, but some voters cannot evaluate every aspect of compensation. If pension packages are "shrouded," meaning that public-sector workers better understand their value..." Link