Decomposing public-private teachers’ wage gap: evidence from Brazil

Abstract

A two-stage wage gap decomposition permits measuring the contribution of observableand unobservable characteristics of the wage gap formation and evolution comparingteachers’ earnings in the public and private sectors from 2006 to 2017. Teachers fromthe public sector earn more than the ones from the private sector at mean, median, andquantile 10 due to the composition effect. The analysis across levels of education showsthat the composition effect is important in explaining the wage gap in early childhoodeducation while the structure effect is more relevant to the wage gap decomposition inprimary and high school education.