DECENTRALIZATION AND PAY REFORM IN CENTRAL GOVERNMENT - A STUDY OF 3 COUNTRIES

Over the past decade central governments of the UK, Sweden and Austral ia have been engaged in significant reforms in the way they pay their employees. These reforms have generally taken the form of the decentra lization of pay bargaining and the individualization of pay. This pape r details the policies that have been implemented in central governmen t in these countries and presents some preliminary results on the effe cts of these. While the actual implementation has varied quite substan tially across the countries and the analysis of the outcomes must be r egarded as preliminary, there is some evidence that the reforms have l ed to an increase in earnings dispersion.