Paulo R. A. Loureiro

Race and gender discrimination in the labor market: an urban and rural sector analysis for Brazil

The article investigates the existence of discrimination in the urban and rural labor markets in Brazil. Tests the hypothesis that returns to education are different for black and white workers, male and female, in the urban and rural sectors. The methodology used allows for the decomposition of the difference in the mean earnings of male and female workers in the urban and rural sectors in a share that can be explained by characteristics such as education, hours of work and experience, and in another share that reflects the existence of discrimination. The analysis is carried out with microdata from the National Household Surveys (PNADs) of 1992 and 1998. The choice of the period of analysis was made with the aim of investigating whether changes in the economic environment affect the standard of returns to education. The results suggest the existence of strong discrimination by gender and race, besides the presence of substantial wage differentials between urban and rural workers.

A study on the valuing of biodiversity: the case of three endangered species in Brazil

Abstract Using the analysis developed by Montgomery et al. (J. Environ. Econ. Manage., 1999) as a starting point, this study establishes the bounds limits to the management price for the conservation of biodiversity. This means, how much the household would be willing to pay to finance a conservation program for three endangered species in Brazil. This program must be restricted to the change in habitat with regard to public benefits associated with biodiversity. Here, this increment in habitat means the marginal benefit derived from the increase in the size of the population. An important point of this paper is that we work with the robust instrument called the Population Viability Analysis (PVA) that estimates the survival probability of the species in the future given a current exogenous disturbance. We show that the results are very sensitive to the parameters of the model, mainly the populations current size and the degree of diversity. We also show that the total amount spent on conservation in Brazil is below the socially optimal level, considering only the three species analyzed in this study.

Uncovered Interest Parity in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico: A Unit Root Test Application with Panel Data

The aim of this study was to test uncovered interest parities for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, for the January 1990-December 2001 period, with the use of the rational expectation hypothesis.We also intend to evaluate the degree of mobility of foreign capital in these political jurisdictions, using panel data estimations, with unit root tests proposed by Levin and Lin (1992), and Im, Pesaran and Shin (1997). The econometric results indicate the rejection of uncovered interest parity (UIP), for the period under study, for the group consisting of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. However, the UIP hypothesis is not rejected for the group consisting of Argentina, Chile, and Mexico for the January 1991-December 2000 period.

Uma resenha teórica e empírica sobre economia da discriminação

Sum´ario: 1. Introdu¸c˜ao; 2. Modelos te´oricos; 3. Evidˆenciasemp´iricas sobre discrimina¸c˜ao; 4. Coment´arios finaisPalavras-chave: discrimina¸c˜ao por preferˆencia; discrimina¸c˜ao esta-t´istica; empregadores; produtividade; sal´arios e trabalhadores.C´odigo JEL: J71; D82.O artigo faz uma resenha dos principais modelos de discrimina¸c˜aoeexaminaasposs´iveis fontes de discrimina¸c˜ao racial por sexo nomercado de trabalho. Do ponto de vista te´orico, o modelo de dis-crimina¸c˜ao por preferˆencia mostra que o comportamento discrimi-nat´oriodoempregadorest´ainversamenterelacionadoaoslucrosdasfirmas. Os modelos de discrimina¸c˜ao estat´istica partem do pressu-posto de que o credor ou empregador n˜ao tem informa¸c˜ao completasobre os indiv´iduos. Estes modelos utilizam as caracter´isticas dosgrupos que sofrem discrimina¸c˜ao, como ra¸ca ou seu sexo, para re-duzir o valor do cr´edito ou do sal´ario.The paper makes a review of the main of the models of discri-mination and examines the possible sources of racial and genderdiscrimination in the labor market. From a theoretical point ofview, the model shows that the discriminatory behavior of the em-ployers is inversely related to the profits of the firms. The modelsof statistical discrimination assume that the creditor or employersdon’t have complete information on the individuals. These modelsuse the characteristics of the groups that suffer discrimination, asrace or its sex, to reduce the value of the credit or of the wage.

The Effect of a Change in Legislation on the Wage Gap in Brazil

The article investigates the existence of wage gap for gender in the Brazilian labor market. The introduction of compulsory open exams applied in Brazil to public service job candidates as a way to prevent clientelism and nepotism. Our hypothesis is that if there is discrimination, so we should observe gender wage gap reduction after the introduction of the open exams. We find evidence in favor of this hypothesis, thus suggesting that there is discrimination against women, even if we assume that male and female employees have the same human capital characteristics within each public sector.

Avaliação do impacto da utilização de crédito, da educação e da escolha do canal de comercialização na horticultura: caso do núcleo rural do Distrito Federal

This paper aims to identify the influence of several factors linked with the familiar farmer income, which can reinforce or not the basic idea of policy of incentive of the familiar agricultural implemented by Government since 1996. The profits were estimated based on OLS linear regression in two stages, with the equation of second moment has been adjusted by incorporation of inverse ration of Mills generate with the result of probit model, where is estimated the possibility of the producers of vegetables demand or not the credit. It was evident the di-sadvantage of trade via the big supermarkets, because they contribute to reduce, in according to Mello (2001), the gains of vegetables producers.

An evaluation of the Brazilian informal labor market from 1995 to 2008

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to perform an evaluation of the Brazilian informal labor market, following the lines suggested by Araujo and Souza. The paper focuses on the Brazilian labor market by using data from the National Household Sampling Survey – PNAD/IBGE, from 1995 to 2008. Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses four different methodologies: the OLS, pseudo-panel with fixed effects, instrumental variables and the Heckman selection model. The data for this study were obtained at the National Household Sampling Survey – PNAD/IBGE, from 1995 to 2008, with an exception to the years of 1994 and 2000, when this survey did not occur. The cross-section data were pooled and divided in two periods: 1995-2002 and 2003-2008. The sample ranges individuals from 22 to 57 years of age. Findings - The empirical findings show that although wages play an import role in the decision of workers and firms, all wage gaps between formal and informal markets reduced considerably, as has been pointed out by Mattos and Ogura. However, an increase in one year of study would raise the probability of participating in the formal sector while diminishing the probability of joining the informal sector. Besides, the skill premium in the formal sector is higher than in the informal sector. Originality/value - Results indicate that the main difference between the 1995-2002 and 2003-2008 period is the impact of education over wages. Returns to education for the second period are greater than for the first period analyzed. The monetary gains for the first period vary from 16.5 to 18.2 percent for formality and from 12.2 to 14.3 percent for informal labor. Whereas, for the second period these gains range from 19.7 to 22.6 percent and from 16.9 to 18.2 percent, for formality and informality, respectively. According to these findings, investments made on education were more profitable for the 2003-2008 period. However, all wage gaps between formal and informal markets reduced considerably, which reinforces the fact that workers are increasingly deciding in which market to operate.

Criminality and Social Interaction

As regards to the abrupt growth of crime, it has been analyzed that, only with Beckers (1968) original findings, is not sufficient to prove this phenomena. Thus, many researches have incorporated new paradigms with the intention to explain the mechanisms which react to crime. New research lines are being demonstrated the topic which studies the existing relation between illegal behavior and social interaction. Others works tries to verify the factors related to family situation or family heritage has impact on crime. The approach which gives us the support on this research parts from the foundation that crimes have diverse nature, not only for its type but, primarily on its determinants. Therefore, there should be a demarcation line which limits these different categories of crimes, when it is regarding to the nature of the motivation for committing a crime. Such motivation may be associated to economic factors or social interaction. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate if the optimum rule of decision making for entering the criminal world, for each different types of crimes, is motivated by the same factors. Thus, this article based on the procedures of Heckman (1979) to verify if the optimum rule of decision making, which motivates a crime, is the same for different types of crime. According to the results obtained from this study, one may find that there is a difference between the optimum rule of decision of the condemned prisoner for violent crimes of optimum rule of the rest of the prisoners.

Minority Faculty Hiring Power in Academe: an Economic Model

This paper investigates whether minorities in academe exercise bargaining power in a way that influences hiring of other minority faculty. We develop a stylized model that shows how minorities influence the hiring of other minorities, taking into account the hiring of majority faculty. We postulate that such behavior is similar to the behavior of insider workers in the context of the insider-outsider literature.

Is There Discrimination Among Brazilian Lawyers? A Random-Effects Approach

The paper investigates the existence of discrimination amongst lawyers in the private sector of the Brazilian labor market. Using the random-effects approach to estimate earnings equations, combined with the Oaxaca-Ransom (1994, 1999) decomposition methodology, we test the hypothesis that wage differentials amongst lawyers are mostly due to gender discrimination. The econometric evidence shows that with the addition of the specific effects of time in the model, the unexplained share of the Oaxaca-Ransom (1994, 1999) decomposition (attributed to discrimination) is reduced over time comparatively to the share attributed to individual characteristics (endowments). In this context, our results indicate that there is gender discrimination amongst lawyers in Brazil.