FALLING URBAN WAGE PREMIUM ANDINEQUALITY TRENDS: EVIDENCE FOR BRAZIL

Abstract

In this paper, we use data from the National Household Survey\n(PNAD) for Brazil to investigate the dynamics of the urban wage premium and the\nrelationship between the urban wage premium and inequality trends, and we find\ntwo main results. First, we find a decreasing urban wage premium over the period\n2002-2009 using both OLS and quantile regression. Second, we show that the fall\nin the urban wage premium is more pronounced at the 90th percentile than at the\n10th percentile. This finding suggests that the falling urban wage premium has contributed\nto the reduction in inequality observed in Brazil in the last decade.