Wages and Health Worker Retention in Ghana : Evidence from Public Sector Wage Reforms

Antwi, James; Phillips, David

Wages and Health Worker Retention in Ghana : Evidence from Public Sector Wage Reforms

Autores

Antwi, James

Phillips, David

Editor

World Bank, Washington, DC

Descripción

Can governments in developing countries retain skilled health workers by raising public sector wages? The author investigates this question using sudden, policy-induced wage variation, in which the Government of Ghana restructured the pay scale for government health workers. The author find that a ten percent increase in wages decreases annual attrition from the public payroll by 1.5 percentage points (from a mean of eight percentage points) among 20-35 year-old workers from professions that tend to migrate. As a result, the ten-year survival probability for these health workers increases from 0.43 to 0.52. The effects are concentrated among these young workers, and we do not detect effects among older workers or among categories of workers that do not tend to migrate. Given Ghana's context as a major source of skilled health professional migrants and high correlation of our attrition measure with aggregate migration, the author interpret these results as evidence that wage increases in Ghana improve retention mainly through reducing international migration.

Palabras clave

ATTRITION, BARGAINING, BARGAINING POWER, BRAIN, BRAIN DRAIN, COMMUNITY HEALTH, DENTISTS, DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS, DIETICIANS, DRIVERS, EARLY RETIREMENT, ECONOMICS, EMPLOYEE, EXPECTED WAGES, FAMILIES, GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT, GOVERNMENT HEALTH WORKERS, HAZARD, HEALTH CARE, HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS, HEALTH EFFECTS, HEALTH OUTCOMES, HEALTH POLICY, HEALTH SECTOR, HEALTH SERVICES, HEALTH SYSTEM, HEALTH SYSTEMS, HEALTH WORKERS, HEALTH WORKFORCE, HIV, HOSPITALS, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, HUMAN RESOURCE, HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGIES, HUMAN RESOURCES, HUMAN RIGHTS, HUMAN RIGHTS OF MIGRANTS, IMMIGRANTS, IMMIGRATION, INCOME, INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS, INSURANCE, INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, JOB PLACEMENT, JOB SEARCH, JOBS, JOURNAL OF MEDICINE, LABOR MARKET, LABOR MARKET CONDITIONS, LABOR MIGRATION, LABOR SUPPLY, LABOR UNION, LABOUR, LABOUR FORCE, MARGINAL VALUE, MEDICAL OFFICER, MEDICAL OFFICERS, MEDICAL SCHOOL, MIDWIVES, MIGRANT, MIGRANTS, MIGRATION, MIGRATION DATA, MIGRATION FLOWS, MILITARY MEDICINE, MINISTRY OF HEALTH, MINORITY, NATIONAL STRATEGIES, NEGATIVE EFFECTS, NEWSLETTER, NOMINAL WAGES, NURSE, NURSES, NURSING, NUTRITION, OCCUPATION, OCCUPATIONAL CLASSIFICATION, OCCUPATIONS, OLDER WORKERS, PENSIONS, PHYSICIANS, PHYSIOTHERAPISTS, POLICY CHANGE, POLICY MAKERS, POLICY RESEARCH, POLICY RESPONSE, POTENTIAL MIGRANTS, PRACTITIONERS, PREVALENCE, PRIVATE SECTOR, PROGRESS, PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT, PUBLIC HEALTH, PUBLIC POLICY, PUBLIC SERVICE, PURCHASING POWER, REAL WAGE, REAL WAGES, REMITTANCES, RETURN MIGRATION, RURAL AREAS, SCREENING, SERVICE DELIVERY, SKILLED EMPLOYEES, SKILLED WORKERS, SUBSTITUTION EFFECT, SURGEONS, SURVIVAL PROBABILITY, SURVIVAL RATE, TOTAL WAGES, TRADE LIBERALIZATION, TRAINING INSTITUTIONS, TREATMENT, UNEMPLOYMENT, URBAN AREAS, WAGE DATA, WAGE DIFFERENTIALS, WAGE GAP, WAGE INCREASE, WAGE INCREASES, WAGE LEVELS, WAGE STRUCTURE, WORKER, WORKERS, WORKFORCE, WORKFORCE PLANNING, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, YOUNG WORKERS, YOUNGER WORKERS