Educational mismatch, gender and racial wage inequality: evidence on the persistence of high-skilled blacks and women in low-skilled jobs in Brazil

Mariana Salemi, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
Ana Hermeto, Cedeplar, UFMG

Drawing on Brazilian evidences spanning an interval of the last three decades, regularities and disruptions in the incidence of over- and under-education are outlined, as well as consequences for individual earnings. This paper studies the impact of increased schooling in the labor market between 1982 and 2012, from the perspective of occupational allocation, and uses data from large Brazilian database. We compute indicators of mismatch, trying to interpret whether this reflects over-education or increased skills requirements. Hierarchical regression models are estimated to capture the effects of mismatch on individual wage returns by gender and race, controlling for occupational characteristics. Preliminary results indicate both an increase of mismatch over the period and suggest increased skills requirements. And it was found that the wage returns are lower among the overeducated and higher for undereducated when compared to similar individuals in the same occupations, over the entire period.