Firms and the Decline in Earnings Inequality in Brazil

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Alvarez, Jorge; Benguria, Felipe; Engbom, Niklas; Moser, Christian
• 署名单位: International Monetary Fund; University of Kentucky; Princeton University; Columbia University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MACROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7707
• DOI: 10.1257/mac.20150355
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 149-189
• 关键词: high wage workers; trade liberalization; PRODUCTIVITY; dispersion; panel; mobility

摘要

We document a large decrease in earnings inequality in Brazil between 1996 and 2012. Using administrative linked employer-employee data, we fit-high-dimensional worker and firm fixed-effects models to understand the sources of this decrease. Firm effects account for 40 percent of the total decrease and worker effects for 29 percent. Changes in observable worker and firm characteristics contributed little to these trends. Instead, the decrease is primarily due to a compression of returns to these characteristics, particularly a declining firm productivity-pay premium. Our results shed light on potential drivers of earnings inequality dynamics.