CAPITAL HUMANO E DESIGUALDADE SALARIAL NO BRASIL: UMA ANÁLISE DE DECOMPOSIÇÃO PARA O PERÍODO 2001-2012

Abstract

This paper investigates factors that may explain the reduction in wage inequality in Brazil between 1995 and 2014 using a decomposition method suggested by Yun (2006). This method is a synthesis of two another methods, a decomposition proposed by Juhn, Murphy and Pierce (1993) and the other was suggested by Fields (2003). The application of these methods provides a greater level of detail in the decomposition exercise by allowing get the price and quantity effects associated with each of the explanatory variables in the wage equation. The results based on PNAD data, shows that the recent decline in the wage inequality was due mainly to the human capital accumulation, while frictions in the labor market (segmentation and discrimination) seem to have played a secondary role in this process. The price effect associated with human capital was the main reason for this reduction and, in particular, the fall in returns to education played an important role in this result.