Labour markets, income inequality and poverty, household per capita in Brazil and Mexico: 2000 and 2010

• Grant number: 12/08511-1
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Start date: August 06, 2012
• End date: December 05, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Maria Cristina Cacciamali
• Grantee: Maria Cristina Cacciamali
• Visiting researcher: Genaro Aguilar Gutiérrez
• Visiting researcher institution: Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), Mexico
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade (FEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The possibility of designing an alternative economic and social development project for South America depends on the precision of the diagnoses of the faults and limitations of the current model, especially in the social area. The objective of this subproject is to analyze and compare the labor and socioeconomic conditions of Brazil´s and Mexico´s workers by broad regions during 2000 and 2010, and the study of the observed modifications in both labor markets to determine if they correlate with the evolution of poverty and inequality in income distribution in both countries. An analysis of this type would allow for the observation of the behavior of a key market in the social area: the job market. Hence, this study will provide the economic evolution and social development input data for the thematic project, making a comparison of the evolution of Brazil and Mexico during 2000 and 2010. The intent is to highlight the peculiarities of the evolution of the labor markets in two countries with qualitatively different labor laws, and with very different labor market results.In the subproject I will use the micro data of the "Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD-Brasil) and the "Encuesta Nacional de Ingresos y Gastos de los Hogares" (ENIGH-México), to investigate the characteristics and evolution of the labor markets of both countries, and their greater regions, by analyzing the categories of the uniform international occupation classification (CIUO), as well as the evolution and characteristics of poverty and the distribution of family income per capita in two dimensions: the income of the employed and the family income. A quantification of poverty (the number of poor and intensity of poverty) and the inequality in income distribution will also be made (using Theil, Atkinson, Kuznets rate and Gini indices), studying both the universe of employed workers as well as the families that depend on them for 2000 and 2010.More specifically, in this subproject I will study the leading textbooks and international literature on labor markets, inequality and poverty. I will carry out this activity through the study of articles published in international journals and I will discuss them in specific seminars with the technical team of the Thematic Project. Next, I will immediately build the data matrices. In order to carry out the study and comparison of the labor markets and poverty of Brazil and Mexico I will build the data matrices using the micro data of the "Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios" (Brasil) and the "Encuesta Nacional de Ingresos y Gastos de los Hogares" (México) databases. The design of these matrices will also be made using the Clasificación Internacional Uniforme de Ocupaciones (CIUO) considering broad occupational sets for the greater regions of both Brazil and Mexico. These matrices will be used to quantify the evolution and socioeconomic characteristics of the occupational worker groups in Brazil and Mexico for 2000 and 2010, as well as the inequality and poverty measures in the broader regions of both countries during this period.Likewise, the comparative evaluation of wage policy efficiency and some of the social programs of Brazil and Mexico (Oportunidades and Bolsa Familia) will be made using the available databases, and a comparative analysis of the progress of social expenditure in Brazil and Mexico for 2000 and 2010 will be made.Two research papers will be published as a result of the subproject investigation: a) Labor markets and social development policies in Brazil and Mexico, and b) Labor markets, inequality and poverty in Brazil and Mexico. Two doctoral students will also be advised jointly with the professors of the thematic project's technical team. (AU)