Ageing Poorly? : Accounting for the Decline in Earnings Inequality in Brazil, 1995-2012

The 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. Al...

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Main Authors: Ferreira, Francisco H. G., Firpo, Sergio P., Messina, Julian
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/848401490881734831/Ageing-poorly-accounting-for-the-decline-in-earnings-inequality-in-Brazil-1995-2012
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26359
id okr-10986-26359
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-263592021-06-08T14:42:48Z Ageing Poorly? : Accounting for the Decline in Earnings Inequality in Brazil, 1995-2012 Ferreira, Francisco H. G. Firpo, Sergio P. Messina, Julian INEQUALITY EARNINGS RIF REGRESSIONS GINI COEFFICIENT WAGE GAPS MINIMUM WAGE The 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 urban-rural 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. 2017-04-13T17:20:55Z 2017-04-13T17:20:55Z 2017-03 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/848401490881734831/Ageing-poorly-accounting-for-the-decline-in-earnings-inequality-in-Brazil-1995-2012 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26359 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8018 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Latin America & Caribbean Brazil
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic INEQUALITY
EARNINGS
RIF REGRESSIONS
GINI COEFFICIENT
WAGE GAPS
MINIMUM WAGE
spellingShingle INEQUALITY
EARNINGS
RIF REGRESSIONS
GINI COEFFICIENT
WAGE GAPS
MINIMUM WAGE
Ferreira, Francisco H. G.
Firpo, Sergio P.
Messina, Julian
Ageing Poorly? : Accounting for the Decline in Earnings Inequality in Brazil, 1995-2012
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Brazil
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8018
description The 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 urban-rural 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.
format Working Paper
author Ferreira, Francisco H. G.
Firpo, Sergio P.
Messina, Julian
author_facet Ferreira, Francisco H. G.
Firpo, Sergio P.
Messina, Julian
author_sort Ferreira, Francisco H. G.
title Ageing Poorly? : Accounting for the Decline in Earnings Inequality in Brazil, 1995-2012
title_short Ageing Poorly? : Accounting for the Decline in Earnings Inequality in Brazil, 1995-2012
title_full Ageing Poorly? : Accounting for the Decline in Earnings Inequality in Brazil, 1995-2012
title_fullStr Ageing Poorly? : Accounting for the Decline in Earnings Inequality in Brazil, 1995-2012
title_full_unstemmed Ageing Poorly? : Accounting for the Decline in Earnings Inequality in Brazil, 1995-2012
title_sort ageing poorly? : accounting for the decline in earnings inequality in brazil, 1995-2012
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2017
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/848401490881734831/Ageing-poorly-accounting-for-the-decline-in-earnings-inequality-in-Brazil-1995-2012
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26359
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