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A more level playing field? Explaining the decline in earnings inequality in Brazil, 1995-2012

Author

Listed:
  • Francisco H. G. Ferreira
  • Sergio P. Firpo
  • Julian Messina

Abstract

The Gini coefficient of labour earnings in Brazil fell by 20% between 1995 and 2012, from 0.5 to 0.4. The decline was even larger by other measures, with the 90-10 percentile ratio falling by almost 40%. Although the conventional explanation of falling returns to education did play a role, a RIF regression-based decomposition analysis suggests that substantial reductions in the gender, race and spatial wage gaps, conditional on human capital and institutional variables, explain the lion’s share of the decline in earnings inequality. Lower male, white, urban and Southeast wage premia, alongside lower formal-informal wage gaps, account for 6.3 of the ten Gini points difference between 1995 and 2012. Although rising minimum wages contributed to the decline during 2004-2012, they had no such effect during 1995-2002.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Sergio P. Firpo & Julian Messina, 2014. "A more level playing field? Explaining the decline in earnings inequality in Brazil, 1995-2012," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series iriba_wp12, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    • Handle: RePEc:bwp:bwppap:iriba_wp12
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hugo Ñopo, 2012. "New Century, Old Disparities : Gender and Ethnic Earnings Gaps in Latin America and the Caribbean," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 11953.
    2. Ferreira, Francisco H. G. & Leite, Phillippe G. & Litchfield, Julie A., 2008. "The Rise And Fall Of Brazilian Inequality: 1981–2004," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(S2), pages 199-230, September.
    3. Carlos Henrique L. Corseuil & Rita Almeida & Pedro Carneiro, 2012. "Inspeção do Trabalho e Evolução do Emprego Formal no Brasil," Discussion Papers 1688, Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada - IPEA.
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    5. Fortin, Nicole & Lemieux, Thomas & Firpo, Sergio, 2011. "Decomposition Methods in Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 1, pages 1-102, Elsevier.
    6. Diego Battistón & Carolina García-Domench & Leonardo Gasparini, 2014. "Could an Increase in Education Raise Income Inequality? Evidence for Latin America," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 51(1), pages 1-39, May.
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    8. Sergio Firpo & Nicole M. Fortin & Thomas Lemieux, 2009. "Unconditional Quantile Regressions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(3), pages 953-973, May.
    9. Alan S. Blinder, 1973. "Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 8(4), pages 436-455.
    10. Ronald L. Oaxaca & Michael R. Ransom, 1999. "Identification in Detailed Wage Decompositions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(1), pages 154-157, February.
    11. Hugo Ñopo, 2012. "New Century, Old Disparities : Gender and Ethnic Earnings Gaps in Latin America and the Caribbean," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 11953, September.
    12. Javier Gardeazabal & Arantza Ugidos, 2004. "More on Identification in Detailed Wage Decompositions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(4), pages 1034-1036, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Alessandra Brito & Miguel Foguel & Celia Kerstenetzky, 2017. "The contribution of minimum wage valorization policy to the decline in household income inequality in Brazil: A decomposition approach," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(4), pages 540-575, October.
    2. repec:idb:brikps:7203 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Calvo,Paula Andrea & Lopez-Calva,Luis-Felipe & Posadas,Josefina, 2015. "A decade of declining earnings inequality in the Russian Federation," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7392, The World Bank.
    4. Leonardo Gasparini & Guillermo Cruces & Leopoldo Tornarolli, 2016. "Chronicle of a Deceleration Foretold: Income inequality in Latin America in the 2010s," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0198, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    5. Yang Wang, 2015. "Education Expansion and Decline in Tertiary Premium in Brazil: 1995-2013," Working Papers 1525, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    6. Verónica Alaimo & Mariano Bosch & David S. Kaplan & Carmen Pagés & Laura Ripani, 2015. "Jobs for Growth," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 90977, February.
    7. Armando Barrientos & Ed Amann, 2014. "Is there a new Brazilian model of development? Main findings from the IRIBA research programme," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series iriba_wp13, GDI, The University of Manchester.

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