Heterogeneous effects of Human Capital on wages: A quantile analysis in the Southern Region of Brazil

Abstract

Based on the economic and administrative importance of the salary theme, allied to the Human Capital Theory, the main objective of this study is to measure the effects of human capital on workers' wages in southern Brazil. Thus, it is proposed to estimate the impacts of human capital on remuneration for different income quantiles in the southern region of Brazil, while also identifying discriminatory factors. For this, the microdata of the National Survey of Continuous Household Sample (PNADc) of 2019 are used. The sample consists of 41,014 individuals, adopting the correction of the selectivity bias of Heckman (1979), having as analysis techniques quantile regressions with dummies variables and the Oaxaca-Blinder (1973) wage breakdown. The main results indicate that the impacts of human capital are heterogeneous and upward in income quantiles, suggesting evidence for the glass ceiling effect for women and nonwhites in southern Brazil. Concerning the assumption of discriminatory factors, negative impacts were found for the gender and race dummies, being the superior ones related to gender. The theoretical contribution to the area of ​​people management, adding empirical results to wage policy issues. The practical contribution refers to workers regarding the returns on investing in education. It is also expected that this study contributed to the elaboration of public policies seeking wage equality in southern Brazil.