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Women in the Workforce: A Decomposition of Female Racial Wage Gaps in Brazil

Giles Alvarez, Laura LU (2013) EKHR92 20131
Department of Economic History
Abstract (Swedish)
This paper analyses how racial wage gaps amongst women in the Brazilian urban labour market have evolved in response to a strong increase in workers’ skills between 2001 and 2011. For this purpose, Melly (2005, 2006) quantile decomposition frameworks will be applied using PNAD data. In so doing we acknowledges a gap in the literature by focusing on women instead of men, extending wage decomposition frameworks applied to Brazil and updating wage gap estimates by using the latest 2011 data. Our conclusions thus coincide with Salardi (2013) in that increased female labour force skills are the strongest factor determining the reduction, albeit maintenance of glass ceiling effects. However contrasting previous findings by Foguel & Acevedo... (More)
This paper analyses how racial wage gaps amongst women in the Brazilian urban labour market have evolved in response to a strong increase in workers’ skills between 2001 and 2011. For this purpose, Melly (2005, 2006) quantile decomposition frameworks will be applied using PNAD data. In so doing we acknowledges a gap in the literature by focusing on women instead of men, extending wage decomposition frameworks applied to Brazil and updating wage gap estimates by using the latest 2011 data. Our conclusions thus coincide with Salardi (2013) in that increased female labour force skills are the strongest factor determining the reduction, albeit maintenance of glass ceiling effects. However contrasting previous findings by Foguel & Acevedo (2006) we find that the combination of higher skills, greater returns to those skills and changing unobserved factors drive, in conjunction, the lowering of racial wage gaps around the median of the earnings distribution. Finally our key contribution to the existing empirical literature in Brazil reveals that is has been mostly the combined effects of higher skills and unobserved economic wage structures which mostly explain the unexpected rise of sticky floor effects amongst women in the workforce. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Giles Alvarez, Laura LU
supervisor
organization
course
EKHR92 20131
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Race, women, wages, inequality, labour market, skills.
language
English
id
3918684
date added to LUP
2013-08-23 15:20:20
date last changed
2013-08-23 15:20:20
@misc{3918684,
  abstract     = {{This paper analyses how racial wage gaps amongst women in the Brazilian urban labour market have evolved in response to a strong increase in workers’ skills between 2001 and 2011. For this purpose, Melly (2005, 2006) quantile decomposition frameworks will be applied using PNAD data. In so doing we acknowledges a gap in the literature by focusing on women instead of men, extending wage decomposition frameworks applied to Brazil and updating wage gap estimates by using the latest 2011 data. Our conclusions thus coincide with Salardi (2013) in that increased female labour force skills are the strongest factor determining the reduction, albeit maintenance of glass ceiling effects. However contrasting previous findings by Foguel & Acevedo (2006) we find that the combination of higher skills, greater returns to those skills and changing unobserved factors drive, in conjunction, the lowering of racial wage gaps around the median of the earnings distribution. Finally our key contribution to the existing empirical literature in Brazil reveals that is has been mostly the combined effects of higher skills and unobserved economic wage structures which mostly explain the unexpected rise of sticky floor effects amongst women in the workforce.}},
  author       = {{Giles Alvarez, Laura}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Women in the Workforce: A Decomposition of Female Racial Wage Gaps in Brazil}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}