The Effects of Chinese Imports on Female Workers in the Brazilian Manufacturing Sector

This study uses the Becker’s (1957) taste-based discrimination model to analyse the effects of import penetration from China and from the Rest of the World (ROW) on the share of female workers and on the male-female wage gap in the manufacturing sector of Brazil. Using 2000-2012 data from the Brazilian Censuses and Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios, this paper finds no effect of the industry-level exports share on these outcomes. The Chinese import penetration increased the female share and narrowed the male-female wage gap except for college educated workers. The ROW import penetration raised the female share among workers with college degrees, but widened the wage gap except for those with college degrees. These effects were modified with the implementation of the Nova Matriz Econômica (NME) policy in 2008. During the post-NME regime, Chinese import penetration reduced the female share across all workers’ groups, while the negative effects of ROW increased on the female share of all groups and on the wage gap in the unskilled-labour intensive industries except for the workers with college degrees. Hence, the effects of the heightened trade-induced competition on workers’ discrimination depends on the type and source of imports, the education of workers, and the domestic policies, specifically on wages and sectoral subsidies.