The work of musicians in Brazil: an analysis of inequalities between 2012 and 2021

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze aspects of musicians’ work in Brazil. Research dealing with an occupational category are rare. The importance of individual factors, the job position and the macroeconomic situation associated with income differentials, inequality, underemployment for hours worked and the transition to unemployment of musicians in Brazil are measured based on data from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Continuous PNAD) of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), from 2012 to 2021. Three analysis methods are used with stacked data for the entire period. The first is based on the estimation of an earning equation based on Mincer (1974), seeking to analyze how individual, job and macroeconomic characteristics can contribute to higher levels of income from work. The second is based on estimation of logit models intending to evaluate the factors associated with underemployment by hours worked and, and the probability of transition to unemployment/inactivity based on Continuous PNAD longitudinal data for one quarter. Comparing musicians with workers from the occupational group formed by Science Professionals and Intellectuals as well as with all professionals in the cultural sector, it appears that musicians are more impacted by income concentration, loss of income and underemployment than those employed in these two comparison groups.