The effects of functional literacy on Brazilian workers’ employment

Abstract

This paper uses the survey known as the Functional Literacy Indicator (Indicador de Alfabetismo Funcional, Inaf) to investigate the effects of functional literacy on Brazilian workers’ employment levels between 2001 and 2007, emphasizing the differences between genders and among economic sectors. We estimate a series of probit models and control for observable individual characteristics. Results show that the effects of functional illiteracy are higher among women. A difference of one standard deviation on the Inaf exam raises the average woman’s probability of being employed by 6.1 p.p. However, proficiency on the Inaf exam does not seem to affect the employment level of Brazilian men. The exception is the commercial sector, where a gain of one standard-deviation on the INAF increases the probability of being employed by 4.p.p. The commercial sector is characterized by the interaction between sellers and clients, which demands functional skills that are usually not captured by regular measures of education (years of schooling).