From public to private : the performance of former public workers in the Brazilian labor market

This paper analyzes the placement in the private sector of a subset of Brazilian public-sector employees. This group left public employment in the mid-1990’s through a voluntary severance program. This paper contrasts their earnings before and after quitting the public sector, and compares both sets of wages to public and private sector earnings for similar workers. We find that participants in this voluntary severance program suffered a significant reduction in average earnings wage and an increase in earnings dispersion. We test whether the reduction in average earnings and the increase in earnings dispersion is the expected outcome once one controls for observed characteristics, by means of counterfactual simulations. Several methods of controlling for observed characteristics (parametric and non-parametrically) are used for robustness. The results indicate that this group of workers was paid at levels below what would be expected given their embodied observable characteristics.

Skilled labor, unskilled labor, and economic growth

We assess the effects of the imperfect substitution between skilled and unskilled labor on economic growth in a model in which physical capital and skilled labor can be accumulated. It is shown that economies with higher substitutability between skilled and unskilled labor have higher levels of income per capita in the transition and in the long-run equilibrium. Furthermore, these economies have a higher level of skilled labor and a higher level of capital intensity in the long-run equilibrium. For certain parameters values, the speed of convergence depends positively on the elasticity of substitution between skilled and unskilled labor.

Is child labor harmful? the impact of working as a child on adult earnings

This paper explores the question: is working as young laborer harmful to an individual in terms of adult outcomes in income? This question is explored through the utilization of a unique set of instruments that control for the decision to work as a child and the decision of how much schooling to acquire. These instruments are combined with two large household survey data sets from Brazil that include retrospective information on the child labor and schooling of working-age adults: the 1988 and 1996 PNAD. Estimations of the reduced form earnings model are performed first by using OLS without controlling for the potential endogeneity of child labor and schooling, and then by using a GMM estimation of instrumental variables models that include the set of instruments for child labor and schooling. The findings of the empirical investigations show that child labor has large negative impact on adult earnings for both male and female children even when controlling for schooling. In addition, the negative impact of starting to work as a child reverses at around age 14. Finally, different child labor activities are examined to determine if some are beneficial while others harmful with the finding that working in agriculture as a child appears to have no negative impact over and above the loss of education.

Labor earnings dynamics in post-stabilization Brazil

This paper analyzes both the levels and evolution of wage inequality in the Brazilian formal labor market using administrative data from the Brazilian Ministry of Labor (RAIS) from 1994 to 2009. After the covariance structure of the log of real weekly wages is estimated and the variance of the log of real weekly wages is decomposed into its permanent and transitory components, we verify that nearly 60% of the inequality within age and education groups is explained by the permanent component, i.e., by time-invariant individual productive characteristics. During this period, wage inequality decreased by 29%. In the rst years immediately after the macroeconomic stabilization (1994

The long-term effects of conditional cash transfers on child labor and school enrollment

This paper investigates the long-term e ects of conditional cash transfers on school attainment and child labor. To this end, we construct a dynamic heterogeneous agent model, calibrate it with Brazilian data, and introduce a policy similar to the Brazilian Bolsa Fam lia. Our results suggest that this type of policy has a very strong impact on educational outcomes, sharply increasing primary school completion. The conditional transfer is also able to reduce the share of working children from 22% to 17%. We then compute the transition to the new steady state and show that the program actually increases child labor over the short run, because the transfer is not enough to completely cover the schooling costs, so children have to work to be able to comply with the program's schooling eligibility requirement. We also evaluate the impacts on poverty, inequality, and welfare.

Optimal Mirrleesian taxation in non-competitive labor markets

We study optimal labor income taxation in non-competitive labor markets. Firms offer screening contracts to workers who have private information about their productivity. A planner endowed with a Paretian social welfare function tries to induce allocations that maximize its objective. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for implementation of constrained efficient allocations using tax schedules. All allocations that are implementable by a tax schedule display negative marginal tax rates for almost all workers. Not all allocations that are implementable in a competitive setting are implementable in this noncompetitive environment.

Computerization, occupational tasks and the labor market : evidence from a natural experiment in Brazil

A hipótese de “rotinização" ou estabelece que computadores substituem tarefas rotineiras e complementam tarefas abstratas não rotineiras. Essa dissertação de mestrado test algumas predições naturais sobre o impacto “rotinização" sobre o mercado de trabalho de uma grande economia em desenvolvimento. Uso o final da política de reserva de mercado para mini e micro-computador (Outubro de 1992) como um experimento natural que gera variação exógena nos preços de tecnologia para identificar os efeitos do uso de computadores em salários e insumos de trabalho. Conjuntamente, os resultados contribuem para a crescente literatura sobre “perspectiva das tarefas" por trazer implicações testáveis de um queda exógena de preços de computador em um contexto com uma estratégia de identificação crível.

Labor rights, formality and spillovers: evidence from Brazil

Nós analisamos o efeito da emenda constitucional 72/13 no Brasil, que igualou direitos trabalhistas de empregadas domésticas a aqueles de outros empregados. Mostramos que, após a legislação, uma considerável cobertura midiática e um interesse público intensificado aumentou o conhecimento geral de direitos trabalhistas de empregadas domésticas. Como consequência, o não-seguimento de legislações trabalhistas no setor de serviços domésticos ficou mais difícil. Ao mesmo tempo, a necessidade de regulamentar adicionalmente a emenda fez com que custos trabalhistas ficassem praticamente inalterados. Usando uma abordagem de diferença-em-diferenças que compara ocupações selecionadas ao longo do tempo, mostramos que a emenda -- e a discussão que ela causou -- levou a um aumento na formalização e nos salários de empregados domésticos. Então, usando a heterogeneidade do impacto da emenda em grupos demográficos, nossos resultados mostram que emprego doméstico foi reduzido e que mulheres pouco qualificadas saíram força de trabalho e foram para empregos de menor qualidade. Testes de placebo e análises de robustez indicam que nossos resultados não são explicados por diversas interpretações alternativas.

A bidimensional model of matching in the marriage market with women labor decision

We construct a frictionless matching model of the marriage market where women have bidimensional attributes, one continuous (income) and the other dichotomous (home ability). Equilibrium in the marriage market determines intrahousehold allocation of resources and female labor participation. Our model is able to predict partial non-assortative matching, with rich men marrying women with low income but high home ability. We then perform numerical exercises to evaluate the impacts of income taxes in individual welfare and find that there is considerable divergence in the female labor participation response to taxes between the short run and the long run.

Semiparametric modeling of the spatial distribution of occupational accident risk in the casual labor market, Piracicaba, southeast Brazil

The objective of this study was to estimate the spatial distribution of work accident risk in the informal work market in the urban zone of an industrialized city in southeast Brazil and to examine concomitant effects of age, gender, and type of occupation after controlling for spatial risk variation. The basic methodology adopted was that of a population-based case-control study with particular interest focused on the spatial location of work. Cases were all casual workers in the city suffering work accidents during a one-year period; controls were selected from the source population of casual laborers by systematic random sampling of urban homes. The spatial distribution of work accidents was estimated via a semiparametric generalized additive model with a nonparametric bidimensional spline of the geographical coordinates of cases and controls as the nonlinear spatial component, and including age, gender, and occupation as linear predictive variables in the parametric component. We analyzed 1,918 cases and 2,245 controls between 1/11/2003 and 31/10/2004 in Piracicaba, Brazil. Areas of significantly high and low accident risk were identified in relation to mean risk in the study region (p < 0.01). Work accident risk for informal workers varied significantly in the study area. Significant age, gender, and occupational group effects on accident risk were identified after correcting for this spatial variation. A good understanding of high-risk groups and high-risk regions underpins the formulation of hypotheses concerning accident causality and the development of effective public accident prevention policies.

O emprego juvenil no limiar do século XXI :estudo a partir da RAIS e dos programas de inserção de jovens no mercado de trabalho de Natal/RN

This study received the title THE JUVENILE EMPLOYMENT IN THE THRESHOLD OF THE XXI CENTURY: study starting from RAIS and of the programs of youths' insert in the labor market of Natal/RN . It presents as main objective to investigate, starting from the officials data of the Ministério do trabalho e emprego - MTE and of the federal and state government programs, the evolution of the formal employment for youths and the difficulties that leads the success of the returned initiatives the youths' insert in the formal market of work in Brazil and in Rio Grande do Norte, in the period from 2000 to 2004. To accomplish the research, it prioritizes the study of the evolution of the formal employment starting from the data of the MTE as form of diagnosing the formal market of the juvenile work. Search a descriptive way to identify the first results of the programs Primeiro Emprego- PPE (federal) and Primeira Chance - PPC (state), to interpret and to identify the existent gaps among the proposal initial of those programs and the first results obtained in the city of Natal. The research has character no-probability and it applies closed questionnaires for youths assisted by the programs. Were interviewed the local representatives of PPE and PPC, besides representatives of the organized civil society all through open structured interview, covering a total of 103 interviews. The results demonstrated that while PPC (state) obtained success inserting youngs, the PPE (federal) just got to insert 1,5% of the amount subsidized by the state program in Natal. That situation demonstrates a clear preference of the companies for PPC (state), in detriment of the federal program

A formação acadêmica do enfermeiro para o SUS na percepção de docentes e discentes da faculdade de enfermagem/UERN

The model of attention to health in Single Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde SUS) presupposes a human-resources policy which prepares professionals of health to guide the services and sanitary practices. The nurse, a member of health staff, takes over an important role in implementation of principles and standards of SUS, being its professional formation necessary to labor organization in this purpose. In this way this study objectifies to analyse the process of formation of the male nurse in the Politic-Pedagogical Project (Projeto Político-Pedagógico PPP) in the perception of learning and teaching of the Faculty of nursing FAEN of the University of The Rio Grande do Norte State UERN. It treats about a descriptive-exploratory study with qualitative and quantitative approach carried out with learning and teaching of the graduation nursing course. In the field research carried out between the months of november, 2006 and february, 2007, were used like instruments the documental research below PPP´s, structured interview directed to the learning and the closed questionnaire applied to the students of eighth and ninth semesters of graduation course. The results of data about the questionnaires elaborated according to National Curricular Patters (Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais DCN) and the Instrument of Evaluation Course of Graduation MEC were organized according to six lists about the profile of the learning and teaching that participate of the research; of the didactical-pedagogical organization and PPP´s objectives to the just-graduates person to the didactical-pedagogical curriculum organization. For considering the interviews it was adopted thematic analysis of content discribed in lexical analysis by informatical program ALCESTE which provided the organization of the material in five categories: daily problems of SUS consolidation versus nurse formation, dichotomies about FAEN´s nursing course of curriculum versus principles of integralization of graduating process, the just-graduated one from FAEN and its professional insertion united to SUS politic-pedagogical project and the concern about the overcoming of dichotomies of graduation process abilities and necessary competences to the SUS performing nurse. The analysis of informations deriving from documental performance and field research resulted on the verification that, in spite of good intentions, the implementation strategies showed themselves fragile to cope with the rendering of expressed ideal on PPP. There is still a great gap between what´s thought as innovating graduating process and what´s being really implemented