DETERMINAÇÃO DE SALÁRIOS NO BRASIL: DUALIDADE OU NÃO-LINEARIDADE NO RETORNO À EDUCAÇÃO?

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to test the existence of duality in the Brazilian labor market. The method af analysis is to evaluate to what extent one can observe wage differences among workers that are not explained by differences in their productive skil1s. Data from the annual Brazilian household survey (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios - IBGE) from 1988 are analyzed according to the methodology proposed by Dickens and Lang (1985 and 1992), that endogenously determines the dual sectors based on a switching-regression model. The results suggest that there is no dualíty in the Brazilian labor market. Although the dual model does a better job in explaining wages than a linear competitive model, its performance is inferior to a competitive model with nonlinear returns to education. The evidence supports the idea that education is the main determinant of access to good jobs in Brazil.