Race and gender discrimination in the labor market: an urban and rural sector analysis for Brazil

The article investigates the existence of discrimination in the urban and rural labor markets in Brazil. Tests the hypothesis that returns to education are different for black and white workers, male and female, in the urban and rural sectors. The methodology used allows for the decomposition of the difference in the mean earnings of male and female workers in the urban and rural sectors in a share that can be explained by characteristics such as education, hours of work and experience, and in another share that reflects the existence of discrimination. The analysis is carried out with microdata from the National Household Surveys (PNADs) of 1992 and 1998. The choice of the period of analysis was made with the aim of investigating whether changes in the economic environment affect the standard of returns to education. The results suggest the existence of strong discrimination by gender and race, besides the presence of substantial wage differentials between urban and rural workers.