Estimando o retorno da educação no Brasil

Resumen

This paper evaluates the effects of education on the individual'income in Brazil. Three econometric methods are the object of a critical assessment, as well as the necessary conditions and the limitations of their aplication to brazilian data. In addition, the influence of the family background and of the individual abilities on the determination of the labor income are analysed. In the final part of the paper, the PNAD-96 (Nacional Research of Household Samples) data are used to estimate the education return rate for occupied persons inBrazil. There are evidences that, given the restrictions in the available data, this estimative is prone to present bias, that may distort the comprehension of the role that education plays in the process of income distribution.