Earnings inequality and dynamics in the presence of informality: The case of Brazil

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Engbom, Niklas; Gonzaga, Gustavo; Moser, Christian; Olivieri, Roberta
• 署名单位: Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); National Bureau of Economic Research; New York University; Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro; Columbia University; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; Cornell University
• 刊物名称: QUANTITATIVE ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1759-7323
• DOI: 10.3982/QE1855
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 1405-1446
• 关键词: earnings inequality; earnings dynamics; mobility; higher-order moments; informality; sectoral transitions; administrative data; survey data; J31; J46; J62

摘要

Using rich administrative and household survey data spanning 34 years from 1985 to 2018, we document a series of new facts on earnings inequality and dynamics in a developing country with a large informal sector: Brazil. Since the mid-1990s, both inequality and volatility of earnings have declined significantly in Brazil's formal sector. Higher-order moments of the distribution of earnings changes show cyclical movements in Brazil that are similar to those in developed countries like the US. Relative to the formal sector, the informal sector is associated with a significant earnings penalty and higher earnings volatility for identical workers. Earnings changes of workers who switch from formal to informal (from informal to formal) employment are relatively negative (positive) and large in magnitude, dispersed, negatively (positively) skewed, and less leptokurtic. Our results suggest that informal employment is an imperfect insurance mechanism.