NCJ Number
85052
Date Published
1980
Length
227 pages
Annotation
This dissertation examines the determinants of the real entrance salaries and employment levels of police officers across cities during 1970. The investigation focuses on how employer concentration (monopsony) in the police labor market affects wages and employment.
Abstract
The study developed and tested two models of the supply of labor and one of the demand for labor. Findings agree with the monopsony hypothesis that the level of real annual police entrance salaries was negatively correlated with employer concentration. This relationship was statistically significant across a variety of specifications of the wage and employment equations. This implies that the shortages of police officers reported during the late 1960's may be attributed at least partially to the departments' monopsony behavior. In addition, police-fire wage parity provisions significantly reduced police entrance wages but did not affect employment levels. One of the most surprising conclusions was the extreme inelasticity of police wages and employment with respect to their exogenous determinants (i.e., the city's crime rate and revenues, educational level, etc). Data sources, research methods, and about 50 references are appended. Footnotes and numerous data tables are included.