Antwi, JamesPhillips, David2013-05-282013-05-282012-02https://hdl.handle.net/10986/13581Can 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.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOATTRITIONBARGAININGBARGAINING POWERBRAINBRAIN DRAINCOMMUNITY HEALTHDENTISTSDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDEVELOPMENT ECONOMICSDIETICIANSDRIVERSEARLY RETIREMENTECONOMICSEMPLOYEEEXPECTED WAGESFAMILIESGLOBAL DEVELOPMENTGOVERNMENT HEALTH WORKERSHAZARDHEALTH CAREHEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALSHEALTH EFFECTSHEALTH OUTCOMESHEALTH POLICYHEALTH SECTORHEALTH SERVICESHEALTH SYSTEMHEALTH SYSTEMSHEALTH WORKERSHEALTH WORKFORCEHIVHOSPITALSHUMAN DEVELOPMENTHUMAN RESOURCEHUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGIESHUMAN RESOURCESHUMAN RIGHTSHUMAN RIGHTS OF MIGRANTSIMMIGRANTSIMMIGRATIONINCOMEINDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICSINSURANCEINTERNATIONAL MIGRATIONJOB PLACEMENTJOB SEARCHJOBSJOURNAL OF MEDICINELABOR MARKETLABOR MARKET CONDITIONSLABOR MIGRATIONLABOR SUPPLYLABOR UNIONLABOURLABOUR FORCEMARGINAL VALUEMEDICAL OFFICERMEDICAL OFFICERSMEDICAL SCHOOLMIDWIVESMIGRANTMIGRANTSMIGRATIONMIGRATION DATAMIGRATION FLOWSMILITARY MEDICINEMINISTRY OF HEALTHMINORITYNATIONAL STRATEGIESNEGATIVE EFFECTSNEWSLETTERNOMINAL WAGESNURSENURSESNURSINGNUTRITIONOCCUPATIONOCCUPATIONAL CLASSIFICATIONOCCUPATIONSOLDER WORKERSPENSIONSPHYSICIANSPHYSIOTHERAPISTSPOLICY CHANGEPOLICY MAKERSPOLICY RESEARCHPOLICY RESPONSEPOTENTIAL MIGRANTSPRACTITIONERSPREVALENCEPRIVATE SECTORPROGRESSPUBLIC EMPLOYMENTPUBLIC HEALTHPUBLIC POLICYPUBLIC SERVICEPURCHASING POWERREAL WAGEREAL WAGESREMITTANCESRETURN MIGRATIONRURAL AREASSCREENINGSERVICE DELIVERYSKILLED EMPLOYEESSKILLED WORKERSSUBSTITUTION EFFECTSURGEONSSURVIVAL PROBABILITYSURVIVAL RATETOTAL WAGESTRADE LIBERALIZATIONTRAINING INSTITUTIONSTREATMENTUNEMPLOYMENTURBAN AREASWAGE DATAWAGE DIFFERENTIALSWAGE GAPWAGE INCREASEWAGE INCREASESWAGE LEVELSWAGE STRUCTUREWORKERWORKERSWORKFORCEWORKFORCE PLANNINGWORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATIONYOUNG WORKERSYOUNGER WORKERSWorld Bank10.1596/13581