A bivariate approach to the Mincerian earnings equation

This paper estimates bivariate regressions for wages and hours worked as an alternative to the univariate Mincerian earnings equation. The bivariate vector of dependent variables included both common and specific covariates. Using individual level data from the Brazilian National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), the Student t distribution produced the best fit to the data according to information criteria and Mahalanobis distance. The bivariate estimation accounts for correlation between the dependent variables, identifies antagonistic effects from common covariates and allows assuming different bivariate distributions. Education, type of employment contract and geographical region affect wages and hours worked in opposite directions.