The impact is particularly strong for Greece compared to other OECD countries. It could be said, therefore, that expanding public sector employment in the pre-crisis period played a social role, though at the expense of efficiency. For a very long period, hiring in the public sector was driven by clientelism, though this is changing (Chapter 1). The fact that the public sector pay structure often favoured employees from more disadvantaged groups (for example women and new entrants) may have induced higher participation among these groups, reducing social exclusion (OECD, 2011a).