Paulo R.A. Loureiro, Francisco Galrão Carneiro and Adolfo Sachsida
The article investigates the existence of discrimination in the urban and rural labor markets in Brazil. Tests the hypothesis that returns to education are different for black and…
Abstract
The article investigates the existence of discrimination in the urban and rural labor markets in Brazil. Tests the hypothesis that returns to education are different for black and white workers, male and female, in the urban and rural sectors. The methodology used allows for the decomposition of the difference in the mean earnings of male and female workers in the urban and rural sectors in a share that can be explained by characteristics such as education, hours of work and experience, and in another share that reflects the existence of discrimination. The analysis is carried out with microdata from the National Household Surveys (PNADs) of 1992 and 1998. The choice of the period of analysis was made with the aim of investigating whether changes in the economic environment affect the standard of returns to education. The results suggest the existence of strong discrimination by gender and race, besides the presence of substantial wage differentials between urban and rural workers.
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Luciano Nakabashi, Ana Elisa Gonçalves Pereira and Adolfo Sachsida
The Brazilian municipalities show a huge disparity in income level. The GDP per capita difference between the richest and the poorest municipalities is about 190 times, according…
Abstract
Purpose
The Brazilian municipalities show a huge disparity in income level. The GDP per capita difference between the richest and the poorest municipalities is about 190 times, according to IBGE (2000) database. This paper aims to analyze the impacts of Brazilian municipalities institutional quality on their levels of per capita income.
Design/methodology/approach
Institutionalist theory provides a plausible explanation for the gap among municipalities income level. Many empirical studies based on cross-country data have found a high correlation between institutional quality and the level of economic development, but there is little research concerning the extreme inequality within the national territory and its relationship with institutional quality. The theory suggests that the institutions matter for the level of economic development because of their effects on political power distribution, generation of economic opportunities, innovation, human capital accumulation, and so on.
Findings
Overall, an increase by one point in the average quality of the institutions is able to increase the average GDP per capita around 20 percent. This means that each point of increase in the quality of the municipality institutions is able to increase the municipality GDP per capita by R$1,000 (around US$600).
Originality/value
This is an important research that sheds light to the importance of institutional quality at local level and its influence over growth in a developing country.
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Paulo Roberto Amorim Loureiro, Tito Belchior Silva Moreira and Adolfo Sachsida
An important question about the determinants of suicide refers to the role of media. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to investigate if there are groups of people who…
Abstract
Purpose
An important question about the determinants of suicide refers to the role of media. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to investigate if there are groups of people who are susceptible to suicide as a result of the effect of media.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data for the 27 Brazilian states, for the period 1980-2009, to investigate the impact of the media index, unemployment rate, divorce rate and other explanatory variables on the rate of suicide by gender and age. First of all, the authors estimated a model of fixed effects panel. The second estimation method makes use of dynamic panel data with instrumental variables. Each of the results generated by these two estimated models is compared with those obtained by ordinary least squares in stacked data. The authors develop a model about the suicide epidemic where the media works as a contagion effect to disseminate suicidal behavior.
Findings
The authors observe that, the media index is the third motivator of suicide, after unemployment and violence, for all groups of people. The estimated model shows that 1 percent increase in media index increases suicide rate of young men (aged between 15 and 29 years) at 4.22 percent.
Research limitations/implications
The empirical results are limited because the authors developed a media index based on quantities of televisions and radios. The authors suggest other research include social media in the index as well.
Originality/value
This result seems to suggest a type of contagion effect on suicide rates, which reinforces the results obtained by Cutler et al. (2001).
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