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dc.titleAgeing Poorly?: Accounting for the Decline in Earnings Inequality in Brazil, 1995-2012
dc.contributor.authorFerreira, Francisco H. G.
dc.contributor.authorFirpo, Sergio P.
dc.contributor.authorMessina, Julián
dc.contributor.orgunitDepartment of Research and Chief Economist
dc.coverageBrazil
dc.date.available2017-04-03T00:00:00
dc.date.issue2017-03-31T00:00:00
dc.description.abstractThe Gini coefficient of labor earnings in Brazil fell by nearly a fifth between 1995 and 2012, from 0.50 to 0.41. The decline in earnings inequality was even larger by other measures, with the 90-10 percentile ratio falling by almost 40 percent. Although the conventional explanation of a falling education premium did play a role, an RIF regression-based decomposition analysis suggests that the decline in returns to potential experience was the main factor behind lower wage disparities during the period. Substantial reductions in the gender, race, informality and urbanrural wage gaps, conditional on human capital and institutional variables, also contributed to the decline. Although rising minimum wages were equalizing during 2003-2012, they had the opposite effects during 1995-2003, because of declining compliance. Over the entire period, the direct effect of minimum wages on inequality was muted.
dc.format.extent49
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0011789
dc.identifier.urlhttps://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Ageing-Poorly-Accounting-for-the-Decline-in-Earnings-Inequality-in-Brazil-1995-2012.pdf
dc.language.isoen
dc.mediumAdobe PDF
dc.publisherInter-American Development Bank
dc.subjectHousehold Income
dc.subjectHuman Capital
dc.subjectIncome Equality
dc.subjectInformal Labor
dc.subjectFormal Labor
dc.subject.jelcodeD31 - Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
dc.subject.jelcodeJ31 - Wage Level and Structure • Wage Differentials
dc.subject.keywordsincome inequality;human capital;wage gaps;household income
dc.typeWorking Papers
idb.identifier.pubnumberWorking Papers
idb.operationRG-K1415
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