Skill-biased technological change in Brazil: implications on occupation allocation and on the relative wage distribution by gender

Ana Hermeto, Cedeplar, UFMG

The aim of the paper is to analyze and decompose changes in earnings relative distribution between men and women of different cohorts in Brazil, using the relative distribution framework. This methodology was proposed by Handcock and Morris (1999), considering non-parametrical tools which allow an exploratory analysis that is independent of parametric assumptions on the mathematical form of the response-variable probabilities. We use density estimates of the kernel probability for each sex and cohort and decompositions of the relative distribution to get substantive evidences for gender differentials and relative mobility in Brazil since the 1980´s. Further, gender wage differentials in Brazil are estimated using parametric methodologies, traditional mincerian regressions and quantile regressions. The hypothesis is that skill biased technological changes in the myriad of occupations leaded to an increased demand for workers with higher educational levels, which has been not fully translated to a polarization in the labor market, due to the education-occupation mismatch in Brazil. We use microdata from the Brazilian Household Sample Survey (PNAD), from 1981 to 2011. A pseudo-panel of these repeated cross-sections was constructed, allowing to follow cohorts over time, and to decompose the potential sources of gender wage inequality in the within and between-occupations components.