Andréa Zaitune Curi

O mercado de trabalho brasileiro é segmentado? Alterações no perfil da informalidade e nos diferenciais de salários nas décadas de 1980 e 1990

In this paper we examine the determinants of the mobility of Brazilian workers from the formal sector to informality, self-employment and unemployment, using longitudinal data from Monthly household surveys for 6 metropolitan regions. The results show that the reduction in formality was due to an increase in the transitions from the formal to the informal sector and to a decline in the exits from unemployment to the formal sector. Moreover, sector turn-over in Brazil is quite high and the transitions from unemployment and from the informal sector are time dependent. Finally, the wage differentials between workers in the formal and in the informal sector, after controlling for workers fixed effects was 10% in the 1980s and declined to about 5% in the 1990s, showing that the Brazilian labor market is close to competitive.

Corruption and the size of government: causality tests for OECD and Latin American countries

The purpose of this article is to examine the causality between government size and corruption, and to verify if there is a different pattern of causality between developed Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (excluding Mexico) and developing countries (Latin American countries) during the period 1996 to 2003. Applying Granger and Huangs (1997) methodology we find evidence that size of government Granger causes corruption in both samples. Since a larger government involvement in private markets today will be followed in future by a higher level of corruption a policy advice would be to enhance governance. The promotion of good governance helps to combat corruption given that it complements efforts to reduce corruption more directly, and it is strongly recommended by the International Monetary Fund, other multilateral institutions, and all worried with the negative impacts of corruption on economic activity.

A relação entre educação pré-primária, salários, escolaridade e proficiência escolar no Brasil

This paper examines the relations between daycare and pre-school, wages, education and school performance in Brazil using a survey with detailed information on education and earnings trajectories. We find that pre-school attendance has a positive relationship with primary, middle school, high school and college conclusion, even when we condition on parental education. Pre-schooling is associated with increases of 1.5 year in schooling and about 27% in wages. Pre-schooling is also associated with increases in standardized test scores in the 4th, 8th and 11th grades.