Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/141523 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9764
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
According to Becker's (1957) theory of taste-based employer discrimination, pure economic rents are necessary for discrimination to be observed in the labor market. Increased competition and reduced rents in the market for final goods should therefore lead to reduced labor market discrimination. We look at the natural experiment represented by the Brazilian trade liberalization from the early 1990s to study the effect of increased competition in the market for final goods on racial discrimination in the labor market. Changes in tariffs and initial employment structures are used to show that, in locations where there were relatively larger increases in exposure to foreign competition between 1990 and 1995, there were also relatively larger declines in the conditional racial wage gap between 1991 and 2000. As predicted by theory, the initial wage gap and its decline were more pronounced in regions with more employment in concentrated sectors. The effect of increased competition on the racial wage gap was not driven by changes in returns to productive attributes, in the structure of employment, or in other labor market outcomes. We find robust evidence of a negative effect of increased competition in the market for final goods on discrimination in the labor market.
Subjects: 
discrimination
racial wage gap
competition
labor market
trade reform
Brazil
JEL: 
J31
J71
J78
F66
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
1.02 MB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.