Uma análise da evolução do diferencial regional de rendimentos no setor agrícola brasileiro - 1995 a 2009

Abstract

An analysis of the evolution of the regional earnings gap in the Brazilian agricultural sector-1995 to 2009 This paper analyzes the evolution of the earnings gap among employees in the Brazilian agricultural sector, in the period of 1995 to 2009. Using the microdata of the Brazilian National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), five earnings equations are estimated as a means of identifying the determinant factors of earnings in the sector, considering age, educational background, census situation, region, activity, and other variables. Interactions between region and activity are also considered, as a means of identifying the effect of each activity in the same region and between regions. The first two models show that level of education is a significant determinant factor for the formation of earnings in the sector, which starts to intensify at ten years of school education. However, there has been a reduction in the earnings from investments in schooling, which corroborates the convexity of earnings from education seen in other industries. Hours worked also appeared to be a significant factor for the formation of labor earnings in the sector. There is also a significant regional effect, which is associated with the different levels of development of agricultural and livestock activities between regions. The coefficients associated with the individual's skin color indicated that unlike other sectors, this variable does not have a material effect on the formation of earnings in this sector. An important aspect was presented by the coefficients associated with Black individuals, which indicated that in spite of the existence of a negative difference in relation to White individuals, this difference was less than that verified for the Brazilian population in general. Accordingly, it can be said that differentiation in terms of skin color in the agricultural sector is not as intense as that of the other sectors of the economy, and the effect is less than that observed in the urban environment. The results associated with gender, in turn, pointed towards a positive earnings differential for males that is lower than that verified for the economy as a whole, an indication that gender is a characteristic more strongly observed in the nonagricultural job market. In relation to activities, it can be seen that earnings associated with maize cultivation are, on average, lower than those of other agricultural and livestock activities, while a positive differential is observed for soya and sugarcane cultivation activities. The results associated with the third and fourth models indicate that the introduction of interactions between region and activity does not significantly alter the coefficients of the variables considered in the previous models. In intraregional terms, there is a predominantly negative earnings gap associated with maize cultivation, while the opposite behavior occurs in soya cultivation. In sugarcane cultivation, we see a different behavior between r...