Knowledge and Competitiveness, and Employee Salaries and Benefits in the Government: An Attempt for a Global Experience

Abstract

The paper studies knowledgebase and competitiveness of selected countries from all the continents and finds that countries with lower scores in the above knowledgebase pay higher salaries and benefits to the public sector employees. Their public-private pay gap is also higher. These countries also overstaff their public sector organizations. The paper also studies reporting and financial disclosure of selected nationally important public sector organizations of these countries. These organizations also report and disclose very little. Most of these countries are also found to be faith-based. The study takes UNDP, UNESCO, WIPO and World Bank for knowledge and competitiveness rankings, and budget documents of the respective countries for public sector pay and public expenditures. The study period is 2018-19. The results are mixed, partly consistent and partly inconsistent with the previous literature. One important finding of this paper is that although in macro level (country level) Saudi Arabia, UAE and Chile stand in the middle and upper middle regarding knowledgebase and competitiveness, in micro level (organizational level) disclosure and financial reporting of these countries is very poor.

Keywords: knowledge, competitiveness, disclosure, reporting and financial statements, public sector, salaries and benefits

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