This study investigates the role of race, family background and education in earnings inequality between whites and the African descendent population in Brazil. It uses quantile Mincer earnings regressions to go beyond the usual decomposition of average earnings gaps. Differences in human capital, including parental education and education quality, and in its returns, account for most but not all of the racial earnings gaps. There appears to be greater pay discrimination at the higher salary jobs for any skill level. Returns to education vary with the gradient of skin color. While returns are similar for white and mixed race workers at the top of the adjusted wage scale, mixed race workers at the bottom are rewarded similar to blacks. Thus, while equalizing access to quality education is key to reduce racial earnings inequality in Brazil, specific policies are also needed to facilitate equal access of non‐whites to good quality jobs.
Latin America is seen as a highly discriminatory society. However, such a common belief appears not to be based on strong empirical evidence (Chong and Ñopo, 2007). This paper exploits novel experimental data gathered to identify the existence of discrimination in the labor market of Lima, Peru, a fast-growing country where much anecdotal evidence suggests the presence of discriminatory practices at many instances of daily life. Focusing on two dimensions, sex (female/male) and surnames (indigenous/white), we sent 4,820 fictitious and equivalent CVs in response to 1,205 real job vacancies advertised in an important Peruvian newspaper. We randomly allocated indigenous and white surnames across CVs sent in application to professional, technical, and unskilled jobs. Overall, we find that males receive 20 percent more callbacks than females, and whites receive 80 percent more calls than indigenous applicants. Within job categories, we find sexual discrimination only in unskilled jobs, while discrimination against indigenous is verified across all job categories. There are no statistically significant differences in the time to receive a phone call among male/female, and white/indigenous applicants.
RESUMENPe rú ha ex pe ri men ta do en los de ce nios re cien tes un sig ni fi ca ti vo in cre men to en su co ber tu ra de edu ca ción, en ge ne ral, y de la edu ca ción su pe rior, en par ti cu lar. Sin em bar go, las al tas ta sas de de sem pleo y sub em pleo exis ten tes siem bran du das acerca del ren di mien to de las in ver sio nes en edu ca ción rea li za das. Este ar tícu lo es ti ma la evo lu ción de los ren di mien tos de la edu ca ción en los pa sa dos dos de ce nios en Pe rú y en cuen tra prue bas mix tas acer ca de la ren ta bi li dad de la edu ca ción su pe rior en el mer ca do la bo ral pe rua no. Gra cias a la con ve xi fi ca ción de los ren di mien tos, la edu ca ción uni ver si ta ria ofre ce ac tual men te ta sas pro me dio de ren di mien to pri va do y so cial en tér mi nos rea les es ti ma das en tre 12 y 15%. Por lo con tra rio, la edu ca ción su pe rior no uni ver si ta ria otor ga ta sas de ren di mien to pri va do y so cial en pro me dio po co atrac ti vas, y has ta cer ca nas a 0, por lo que pa re ce jus ti fi ca da una pro fun da eva lua ción de la efec ti vi dad y per ti nen cia de es te es tra to edu ca ti vo. ABSTRACTPe ru has ex pe rien ced du ring the last de ca des a sig ni fi cant in crea se in its edu ca tio nal co ve ra ge at all le vels, in clu ding hig her edu ca tion. Ho we ver, cu rrently high unem - ploy ment and un de rem ploy ment ra tes cast doubt about the pro fi ta bi lity of the invest ments in edu ca tion un der ta ken. This pa per es ti ma tes the evo lu tion of the re turns to edu ca tion in the last two de ca des in Pe ru, and finds mi xed evi den ce on the pro fi ta bi lity of hig her edu ca tion in the Pe ru vian la bor mar ket. Due to the conve xi fi ca tion of re turns, uni ver sity edu ca tion shows ave ra ge pri va te and so cial ra tes of re turn es ti ma ted bet ween 12 to 15%. On the con trary, non uni ver sity hig her edu ca tion shows on ave ra ge rat her low pri va te and so cial ra tes of re turn, even clo se to ze ro. The re fo re, a deep eva lua tion on the ef fec ti ve ness and re le van ce of that educa tion le vel seems wa rran ted. INTRODUCCIÓNE n los de ce nios re cien tes el nú me ro de pro fe sio na les que in gre sa ca da año al mer ca do la bo ral pe rua no se ha mul ti pli ca do 65 ve ces. 1 Este he cho pue de te ner una lec tu ra po si ti va pues de mos tra ría que el gra do de ca li fi cación de la ofer ta la bo ral pe rua na ha me jo ra do de ma ne ra im por tan te. Sin em bar go, la lec tu ra pe si mis ta de es ta ten den cia se ría que, la men ta ble men te, mu chos de es tos gra dua dos ha brían aca ba do frus trán do se, ya que las oportu ni da des de tra ba jo pro fe sio nal en el Pe rú no ha brían po di do cre cer a un rit mo de 10% anual en los pa sa dos cua tro de ce nios. Hoy en día es tu dian en el Pe rú 498 502 jó ve nes en 85 uni ver si da des (en 1960 só lo ha bían 10 uni ver si da des), mien tras que otros 384 956 jó ve nes se for man en 1 046 ins ti tu tos su pe rio res no uni ver si ta rios. La ta sa bru ta de matrí cu...
This paper analyzes the relative importance of short term financial constraints vis a vis skills and other background factors affecting schooling decisions when explaining access to higher education in Peru. We focus on college access disparities between rich and poor households. We use a novel household survey that includes special tests to measure cognitive and non-cognitive skills of the urban population age 14-50. These are complemented with retrospective data on basic education and family socioeconomic conditions in a multinomial model. We find that strong correlation between college enrollment and family income in urban Peru is not only driven by credit constraints, but also by poor college readiness in terms of cognitive skills and by poor family and educational backgrounds affecting preferences for schooling. Family income explains, at most, half of the college access gap between poor and non-poor households. The other half is related to differences in parental education, educational background and cognitive skills. Our results indicate that credit and/or scholarship schemes alone will not suffice to change the regressive nature of higher education enrollment in Peru, and that such programs will face strong equity-efficiency trade-offs.
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