This text decomposes the earnings differential between white men, on the one hand, and black men, white women, and black women, on the other. A difference in earnings may arise due to at least three causes: difference in human capital, different insertions in the labor market, or pure difference...

This discussion paper presents a methodology to visualize the effects of various influences on the income distribution. The methodology, although not new, has become very popular in the past few years. It is the method of counterfactual simulations. In other words, it is the use of "what if …"...

The objective of this discussion paper is to estimate the impact that changes in the value of the minimum wage will have upon the distribution of individual labor income. Two complementary approaches will be used. The first approach is to use non parametric estimators to estimate the individual...

This paper investigates the existence of a job queue for formal (registered) jobs in the Brazilian labour market in an endogenous switching regression framework. This approach aims at correctly specifying the allocation process in the presence of queuing and getting unbiased wage equation...

In 2006, the Bolsa Família Program completed its expansion, expecting to cover 11 million beneficiary families. The objective of this article is to evaluate whether this implied in deterioration in the program's efficient targeting and whether the target of 11 million families in fact covers...

This text discusses the Bolsa Família Program, its institutional design, implementation issues, its impacts and possibilities for future evolution. We discuss the institutional division of responsibilities, benefits, conditionalities and federative arrangements. With regards to implementation...