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Education, Family Background and Racial Earnings Inequality in Brazil

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Author Info

  • Omar Arias
  • Gustavo Yamada
  • Luis Tejerina

Abstract

This study combines survey data with annual state data on pupil-teacher ratios covering broadly the period 1940-90 to investigate the role of race, family background and education (both the quantity and quality) in explaining earnings inequality between whites and the African descendent population (pretos and pardos) in Brazil. The authors estimate quantile Mincer earnings equations to go beyond the usual racial average earnings gaps decompositions. The main findings indicate that differences in human capital, including parental education and education quality, and in its returns, account for most but not all of the earnings gap between the African descendent population and whites. There is evidence of potential greater pay discrimination at the higher salary jobs at any given skill level. The authors also find that returns to education vary significantly across workers. The results suggest that while equalizing access to quality education, including improved early learning environments, is key to reduce inter-racial earnings inequality in Brazil, specific policies are also needed to facilitate non-whites equal access to good quality jobs.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Inter-American Development Bank in its series IDB Publications with number 51498.

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Date of creation: Sep 2002
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:idb:brikps:51498

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Related research

Keywords: Social Development :: Poverty; Education; Economics :: Income; Consumption & Saving; Labor :: Workforce & Employment; Discrimination; wage inequality; returns to education; Quantile Regressions; Brazil;

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References

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  1. Pereira, Pedro T. & Martins, Pedro S., 2000. "Does Education Reduce Wage Inequality? Quantile Regressions Evidence from Fifteen European Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 120, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  2. repec:fth:prinin:357 is not listed on IDEAS
  3. David Lam & Robert F. Schoeni, 1994. "Family Ties and Labor Markets in the United States and Brazil," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 29(4), pages 1235-1258.
  4. Lam. D. & Schoeni, R.F., 1996. "Effects on Family Background on Earnings and Returns to Schooling: Evidence from Brazil," Papers 96-13, RAND - Reprint Series.
  5. Anne Case & Motohiro Yogo, 1999. "Does School Quality Matter? Returns to Education and the Characteristics of Schools in South Africa," NBER Working Papers 7399, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. Carneiro, Pedro & Hansen, Karsten T. & Heckman, James J., 2002. "Removing the Veil of Ignorance in Assessing the Distributional Impacts of Social Policies," IZA Discussion Papers 453, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  7. David Lam & Suzanne Duryea, 1999. "Effects of Schooling on Fertility, Labor Supply, and Investments in Children, with Evidence from Brazil," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(1), pages 160-192.
  8. Angel López-Nicolás & Jaume García & Pedro J. Hernández, 2001. "How wide is the gap? An investigation of gender wage differences using quantile regression," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 149-167.
  9. Mwabu, Germano & Schultz, T Paul, 1996. "Education Returns across Quantiles of the Wage Function: Alternative Explanations for Returns to Education by Race in South Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 335-39, May.
  10. Card, David & Krueger, Alan B, 1992. "Does School Quality Matter? Returns to Education and the Characteristics of Public Schools in the United States," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(1), pages 1-40, February.
  11. Omar Arias & Walter Sosa-Escudero & Kevin F. Hallock, 2001. "Individual heterogeneity in the returns to schooling: instrumental variables quantile regression using twins data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 7-40.
  12. Behrman, Jere R & Birdsall, Nancy, 1985. "The Quality of Schooling: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(5), pages 1202-05, December.
  13. Polachek, Solomon W. & Kim, Moon-Kak, 1994. "Panel estimates of the gender earnings gap : Individual-specific intercept and individual-specific slope models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 23-42, March.
  14. Koenker, Roger & Bassett, Gilbert, Jr, 1982. "Robust Tests for Heteroscedasticity Based on Regression Quantiles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 43-61, January.
  15. Kuhn, Peter J, 1987. "Sex Discrimination in Labor Markets: The Role of Statistical Evidenc e," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(4), pages 567-83, September.
  16. David Card & Alan Krueger, 1996. "Labor Market Effects of School Quality: Theory and Evidence," Working Papers 736, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
  17. Card, David, 1999. "The causal effect of education on earnings," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 30, pages 1801-1863 Elsevier.
  18. William A. Darity & Patrick L. Mason, 1998. "Evidence on Discrimination in Employment: Codes of Color, Codes of Gender," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 63-90, Spring.
  19. Behrman, Jere R & Birdsall, Nancy, 1983. "The Quality of Schooling: Quantity Alone is Misleading," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(5), pages 928-46, December.
  20. Heckman, James & Layne-Farrar, Anne & Todd, Petra, 1996. "Human Capital Pricing Equations with an Application to Estimating the Effect of Schooling Quality on Earnings," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 78(4), pages 562-610, November.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Jean-Louis Arcand & Béatrice D'hombres, 2004. "Racial discrimination in the Brazilian labour market: wage, employment and segregation effects," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(8), pages 1053-1066.
  2. Luana Marquez Garcia & Hugo Nopo & Paola Salardi, 2009. "Gender and Racial Wage Gaps in Brazil 1996-2006: Evidence Using a Matching Comparisons Approach," Research Department Publications 4626, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
  3. Nopo, Hugo & Atal, Juan Pablo & Winder, Natalia, 2010. "New Century, Old Disparities: Gender and Ethnic Wage Gaps in Latin America," IZA Discussion Papers 5085, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  4. Gustavo Yamada, 2006. "Retornos a la educación superior en el mercado laboral: ¿Vale la pena el esfuerzo?," Working Papers 06-13, Departamento de Economía, Universidad del Pacífico, revised Dec 2006.
  5. Leping, Kristian-Olari & Toomet, Ott, 2008. "Emerging ethnic wage gap: Estonia during political and economic transition," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 599-619, December.
  6. Pham, T. Hung & Reilly, Barry, 2007. "Ethnic Wage Inequality in Vietnam: Empirical Evidence from 2002," MPRA Paper 6477, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  7. Arias, Omar & Blom, Andreas & Bosch, Mariano & Cunningham, Wendy & Fiszbein, Ariel & Lopez Acevedo, Gladys & Maloney, William & Saavedra, Jaime & Sanchez-Paramo, Carolina & Santamaria, Mauricio & Siga, 2005. "Pending issues in protection, productivity growth, and poverty reduction," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3799, The World Bank.
  8. Arestoff, Florence & Sgard, Jérôme, 2012. "Education, pauvreté, inégalités : les relations économiques élémentaires," Open Access publications from Sciences Po info:hdl:2441/eu4vqp9ompq, Sciences Po.
  9. Carlos Alberto Herrán, 2005. "Reducing Poverty and Inequality in Brazil," IDB Publications 14218, Inter-American Development Bank.
  10. Kristjan-Olari Leping & Ott Toomet, 2007. "Ethnic Wage Gap And Political Break-Ups: Estonia During Political And Economic Transition," University of Tartu - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Working Paper Series 53, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu (Estonia).
  11. Gustavo Yamada & Juan Castro, 2010. "Educación superior e ingresos laborales: Estimaciones paramétricas y no paramétricas de la rentabilidad por niveles y carreras en el Perú," Working Papers 10-06, Departamento de Economía, Universidad del Pacífico, revised Dec 2010.

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