Carlos Henrique Corseuil

The Impact of Regulations on Brazilian Labor Market Performance

The objective of this paper is to identify whether the prevailing Brazilian labor market regulations, largely the result of the 1988 constitutional change, have any impact on labor market performance. To reach this objective we explore alternative methodologies, sources of information and measures of labor market performance.

Trade liberalization, the exchange rate and job flows in Brazil

Brazil underwent a large trade liberalization process in the 1990s. Over the period, manufacturing employment decreased significantly, generating public debate on the need to revert liberalization. This paper aims to identify the actual effect of trade liberalization on employment, separating it from exchange rate movements using a gross job flow approach. Our novel dataset covers all sectors and formally registered enterprises, and we use new sector specific exchange rate data. Our estimates suggest that greater openness reduce jobs through increased job destruction, with no effect on job creation, but the exchange rate matters also. Depreciations expand the number of jobs in manufacturing by increasing creation, with no effect on destruction.

Labor Market Regulations and the Demand for Labor in Brazil

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of the 1988 changes in labor market regulations on the level of employment and on the time required by firms to adjust their employment level to economic fluctuations. From the many aspects of labor market regulations, this study will concentrate on those that directly influence variable labor and dismissal costs. Evaluating the impact of changes in these costs on the level of employment and speed of adjustment will be based on estimates of structural dynamic models for labor demand at different points in time before and after the 1988 constitutional change. The empirical strategy will be to estimate such models from microlongitudinal monthly data for a sample of 5,000 on manufacturing establishments, which cover the period from January 1985 to December 1997. To try to isolate the effect of the constitutional change on the parameters of the demand function from the effect of the process of trade liberalization and of the series of stabilization plans that also occurred in the end of the 80’s, we regress our monthly estimates of these parameters on a temporal indicator for the 1988 constitutional change, controlling for a variety of other macroeconomic indicators. O objetivo principal deste artigo e avaliar o impacto das mudancas na regulacao do mercado de trabalho, implementadas com a Constituicao de 1988, sobre o nivel de emprego e a velocidade do ajuste do emprego a flutuacoes economicas. Entre os varios aspectos da regulacao do mercado de trabalho, nossa analise prioriza aqueles relacionados aos custos variaveis do trabalho e custos de demissao. A avaliacao dos impactos da variacao destes custos sobre as variaveis mencionadas sera baseada em estimativas de um modelo dinâmico de carater estrutural da demanda por trabalho em varios periodos, anteriores e posteriores a mudanca constitucional de 1988. A estrategia empirica consiste em estimar o modelo por intermedio de dados microlongitudinais de periodicidade mensal. Os dados sao da Pesquisa Industrial Mensal, que reportam informacoes sobre cerca de 5 mil estabelecimentos industriais. Nossa analise compreendera o periodo de janeiro de 1985 a dezembro de 1997. Os resultados nao mostram nenhuma evidencia de que os parâmetros da demanda por trabalho tenham tido seus valores alterados por volta de 1988. Estes resultados continuam validos mesmo quando se considera a influencia de fatores macroeconomicos sobre a evolucao mensal dos parâmetros estimados.

Liberalização comercial e estruturas de emprego e salário

Este artigo investiga se a liberalizacao comercial introduzida no Brasil em fins da decada de 1980 afetou as estruturas de emprego e salarios. Analisaram-se os dados da industria manufatureira entre 1987 e 1998, periodo pre e pos-abertura, e encontraram-se evidencias de que tanto a diminuicao das tarifas de importacao como o aumento dos fluxos comerciais pouco mudaram a participacao relativa do emprego e os premios salariais inter-industriais. Mostra-se que esses resultados estao associados a elevadissima estabilidade das estruturas de emprego e salarios no Brasil.

Emprego Industrial no Brasil: Análise de Curto e Longo Prazos

In this paper we estimate the parameters of the traditional dynamic labor demand model. We base our empirical analysis on information provided by a monthly survey for the Brazilian manufacturing sector (PIM/IBGE) for the period 1985-1999. Since non-stationarity evidence was found, we also estimate cointegration relations and the corresponding vector error correction models (VECM). This estimation incorporates the restrictions imposed by Euler equations of quadratic linear models as shown in Dolado et al. (1991). Estimated values for product elasticity, in the short run, vary from 0,025 to 0,037 according to the specification. Estimated values for wage elasticity, in the short run, vary from 0 to -0,026. In the long run, the estimation range for both parameters is much wider, depending on the specification used.

Adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean: Examining Time Allocation Decisions with Cross-Country Data

This paper uses micro data from a collection of household surveys conducted in 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to examine the time allocation decisions of adolescents. We find that an econometric model with household and country-level variables, when applied simultaneously to all the countries in the sample, is able to predict quite well the choices among school, work, both or neither in most of the countries. Moreover, the household variables alone, especially parental education, go a long way towards predicting the rates of school attendance, which means that the stage of development, as measured by per capita GDP for example, impacts human capital accumulation mainly through the households’characteristics.

Economic expansion and increase in labout market formality: a poaching approach

This paper investigates the relationship between economic expansion and the degree of formalization for the Brazilian labour market in the recent period. We present a theoretical framework that attempts to explain this relationship through the dynamics of firms hiring strategies. The main predictions are: the share of formal employment rises as the unemployment rate falls, and that the formal-informal wage gap increases, at least at the beginning of the economic expansion. In the empirical part, we use longitudinal microdata from a Brazilian household survey to check whether these two predictions are confirmed. To a large extent our results corroborate both predictions

An Alternative Income Deflator for Some Brazilian Household Surveys

The goal of this paper is to offer an alternative procedure to deflate the income values in Brazil. We base our proposed index on the National Consumer Price Index (INPC) calculated by the Brazilian Census Bureau (IBGE). However we make three adjustments: a) change in the date around which the index is centered; b) adjust the value for July, 1994; and c) extend the time serie for periods before the beginning of the INPC.

Efeitos dos pisos salariais estaduais sobre o mercado de trabalho: uma nova abordagem empírica

Este trabalho avalia os efeitos dos pisos salariais introduzidos no Parana e em Sao Paulo sobre alguns indicadores do mercado de trabalho. Em ambas as Unidades da Federacao (UFs), sao analisados tres grupos ocupacionais distintos com base nos dados da Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicilios (PNAD) do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica (IBGE). Conclui-se que, em um dos grupos de cada UF, a politica aumentou a remuneracao de trabalhadores que receberiam menos que os respectivos pisos caso estes nao tivessem sido criados, sem se contrair o emprego ou se aumentar a informalidade. Em particular, a taxa de emprego parece ter ate reagido de forma positiva nestes dois grupos. Nos demais agregados ocupacionais, nao foi encontrado qualquer efeito significativo da legislacao. A maior contribuicao deste trabalho e a utilizacao de uma nova metodologia mais apropriada para identificar efeitos de tratamento em unidades agregadas, apresentada por Abadie, Diamond e Hainmueller (2010). This paper aims to evaluate the introduction of Brazilian regional and occupational wage floors on labor market performance. We focus on two out of five states that implemented such policy intervention, which are Parana and Sao Paulo. In each region, we have analyzed data for three distinct occupational categories. Our results point that one occupational group in each region seems to be affected by the introduction of a wage floor. In both cases, the wage floor tends to lower the share of employees with wages below the floor, without producing side effect neither on employment nor on informality. In particular, employment appears to have reacted positively. It was found no significant effect of the legislation in the other occupational groups. We innovate on methodological grounds by using the synthetic control method due to Abadie, Diamond and Hainmueller (2010).

Wage Differential in Brazil: A Survey

A distinguish aspect of Brazilian labor market is the enormous wage differentials. In this paper we present a survey about wage differentials determination in Brazil covering articles that deals with wage equation estimations. We report results for roughly 50 articles which covers the relation between wages and the following determinants: Education, tenure, race, gender, activity sector, occupation status (formal versus informal), ownership type of the establishment, region and union membership.