COMMUTING IN THE METROPOLITAN REGION OF BELO HORIZONTE: AN INVESTIGATION OF LABOR INCOME DIFFERENCES

Abstract

The commuting represent financial costs and time. Thus, the realization of such movements involves personal traits and characteristics related to the territorial space. The existence of unequal patterns of demand for labor in different locations possibly reflected on the levels individual income. The paper aims to investigate the relationship between wage differentials and commuting in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area (RMBH). Using Census data 2010 and methods of income decompositions (OAXACA, 1973; BLINDER, 1973) and quantile (CHERNOZHUKOV, FERNANDEZ-VAL, MELLY, 2013) we intend to analyze the income gap between commuting and not commuting. The results show that commuters receive, on average, relatively lower labor income, when compared to those who do not perform such movement. The analysis per quantile income shows that the commuters have, on average, lower income compared to non-commuting in the lower quantile income. While in the higher quantile the situation is reversed. In this group, commuters now have higher income.