IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejmac/v12y2020i1p153-73.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Agricultural Wage Gap: Evidence from Brazilian Micro-data

Author

Listed:
  • Jorge A. Alvarez

Abstract

A key feature of developing economies is that wages in agriculture are below those of other sectors. Using Brazilian household surveys and administrative panel data, I use information on workers who switch sectors and workers with multiple jobs to assess the role of worker composition in explaining this gap. The evidence is consistent with the presence of significant intersector sorting in Brazil. A calibrated sorting model can account for the wage gap level observed, as well as its decline, as the economy transitioned out of agriculture.

Suggested Citation

  • Jorge A. Alvarez, 2020. "The Agricultural Wage Gap: Evidence from Brazilian Micro-data," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 153-173, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejmac:v:12:y:2020:i:1:p:153-73
    DOI: 10.1257/mac.20170436
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mac.20170436
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mac.20170436.data
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mac.20170436.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mac.20170436.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/mac.20170436?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lagakos, David & Marshall, Samuel & Mobarak, Ahmed Mushfiq & Vernot, Corey & Waugh, Michael E., 2020. "Migration costs and observational returns to migration in the developing world," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 138-154.
    2. Merfeld, Joshua D., 2021. "Sectoral Wage Gaps and Gender in Rural India," IZA Discussion Papers 14391, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Tasso Adamopoulos & Loren Brandt & Chaoran Chen & Diego Restuccia & Xiaoyun Wei, 2022. "Land Security and Mobility Frictions," Working Papers tecipa-717, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    4. Niklas Engbom & Gustavo Gonzaga & Christian Moser & Roberta Olivieri, 2022. "Earnings inequality and dynamics in the presence of informality: The case of Brazil," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(4), pages 1405-1446, November.
    5. Fang Song & Xuerong Xu, 2023. "How Operation Scale Improve the Production Technical Efficiency of Grape Growers? An Empirical Evidence of Novel Panel Methods for China’s Survey Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, February.
    6. Porzio, Tommaso & Rossi, Federico & Santangelo, Gabriella, 2020. "The Human Side of Structural Transformation," CEPR Discussion Papers 15110, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Selod, Harris & Shilpi, Forhad, 2021. "Rural-urban migration in developing countries: Lessons from the literature," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    8. Schoellman, Todd, 2020. "Comment on “migration costs and observational returns to migration in the developing world”," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 155-157.
    9. Barker, Nathan & Davis, C. Austin & López-Peña, Paula & Mitchell, Harrison & Mobarak, Ahmed Mushfiq & Naguib, Karim & Reimão, Maira Emy & Shenoy, Ashish & Vernot, Corey, 2023. "Migration and resilience during a global crisis," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    10. Imbert, Clément & Papp, John, 2020. "Costs and benefits of rural-urban migration: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    11. Hang, Jing, 2020. "The gross output agricultural productivity gap," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    12. Qingen Gai & Naijia Guo & Bingjing Li & Qinghua Shi & Xiaodong Zhu, 2021. "Migration Costs, Sorting, and the Agricultural Productivity Gap," Working Papers tecipa-693, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    13. Joshua D. Merfeld, 2023. "Sectoral wage gaps and gender in rural India†," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(2), pages 434-452, March.
    14. Tushar Bharati & Wina Yoman, 2021. "Internal Migration and Labor Market Outcomes in Indonesia," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 21-05, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J43 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Agricultural Labor Markets
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q10 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aejmac:v:12:y:2020:i:1:p:153-73. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.