Education and income in civil construction and industry in Brazil between 2002 and 2013

Abstract

In 2015, the Federal Government launched the slogan Brasil Patria Educadora, placing education as a driving force behind the development of the nation. The contribution of this paper was to estimate educational rates of return for the Industry and Construction Sector from 2002 to 2013 and wage differentiation by gender, race, and geographic region. The Human Capital Theory and educational rates of return presented themselves as an appropriate theoretical framework. The proposed method was earnings equations with polygonal adjustment for education. Using the National Household Sample Survey – PNAD/IBGE, it was observed that educational returns in Construction Sector are higher than in Industry. Another significant result was the asymmetry of the educational return. In Construction, individuals with eight years of schooling or more receive five times more than workers with less education. In Industry, this proportion is three times higher for individuals with eleven years of study or more. This work confirms the understanding that education remained among the variables that contributed most to the increase in income, and educational inequality is translated into the income gap in the labor market.