Valéria Pero

Adjustment, stabilisation and the structure of employment in Brazil

A significant change in the structure of employment in Brazil in the period 1988–95 took place. Industrial employment fell, especially in the most traditional sectors such as clothing, textiles and footwear. There has been a shift of workers from the industrial sector to the services sector and an increase in the share of self‐employed workers and informal wage earners. The quality of jobs being created in the services sector are not of the same ‘quality’ as those in the industrial sector, leading to a deterioration of employment conditions and of the labour market performance. Hence the rate of unemployment is not a very good measure of labour market conditions during adjustment. The creation of jobs in general might therefore not be an explicit target under adjustment. Rather the objective should be trying to change labour market institutions in order to improve the quality of the jobs and the quality of the labour relations.

A QUESTÃO DA MOBILIDADE URBANA NAS METRÓPOLES BRASILEIRAS

O tempo de deslocamento de casa ao trabalho tem se elevado substancialmente nas regioes metropolitanas brasileiras durante a ultima decada. Esse fenomeno tem implicacoes fortes sobre o bem-estar dos individuos, porem as consequencias desse problema nao se distribuem uniformemente entre a populacao. O presente trabalho visa contribuir para o debate sobre a questao da mobilidade urbana nas metropoles brasileiras analisando a evolucao do tempo de deslocamento entre 1992 e 2013 e suas diferencas de acordo com caracteristicas do trabalhador, como sexo, cor e renda per capita , e do posto de trabalho. Verifica-se que o aumento do tempo medio de deslocamento ocorreu a partir de 2003, caracterizando uma questao particularmente importante para as metropoles brasileiras no terceiro milenio. Os trabalhadores com maiores tempos medios de deslocamento residem nas regioes metropolitanas do Rio de Janeiro e de Sao Paulo. Entretanto, as maiores taxas de crescimento ocorreram nas metropoles do Para, Salvador e Recife, sugerindo a necessidade de melhor direcionamento e planejamento de politicas publicas na mobilidade urbana. Considerando as diferencas socioeconomicas, destaca-se que os mais pobres e os mais ricos (extremos da distribuicao de renda) tendem a apresentar tempos de deslocamento menores do que os trabalhadores de familias de renda media. Esse padrao se mantem ao longo do tempo, com aumento do tempo medio de deslocamento entre os mais pobres, mostrando uma face da desigualdade. Porem, o maior aumento ocorreu entre os mais ricos, colocando a questao da mobilidade urbana para alem dos problemas de exclusao social.

Social norms and female labor participation in Brazil

Over the last half‐century, the role of women in society has changed substantially. However, the gender income gap and the difference in labor force participation persist. Other authors introduced the concept of identity from sociology and social psychology at the economic analysis and, based on this, we search less traditional factors for understanding this persistence. Extending analysis of others, we analyze the impact of gender social norms, focusing on the prescription that “a man should earn more than his wife” on social and economic results. Based on the Censuses for 1991, 2000, and 2010 we observed that for only 7 percent of married couples does the wife earn more than her husband. We found evidence that the wives with greater probability of earning more than their husbands are less likely to participate in the labor force. Once she does participate in the labor force, she has a higher probability of earning less than her potential income, working fewer hours, and having an informal job.