Seems like you would have to control for productivity in order incorporate experience into the comparison. Hiring a more educated or experienced person for a j

Seems like you would have to control for productivity in order incorporate experience into the comparison. Hiring a more educated or experienced person for a job in which their education or experience doesn't lead them to be more productive in that particular position is just inefficiency. On the other hand if their experience leads them to be more efficient in their job then it would make sense to pay them more. I can totally agree with you that you have to be pretty careful when drawing conclusions from these sorts of studies. Personally I would be pleasantly surprised to read an accurate study that showed that the government was more efficient with its payroll than the private sector. I'm not going to hold my breath though.