# 1. **Introduction**

Since the late 1980s, macroeconomic stabilization in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has been followed by the acceleration of structural market-based reforms and increasing integration into the global economy. Economic restructuring driven by these so-called "second generation" reforms include trade, fiscal and financial reforms, privatization of public enterprises and provision of some social services, and deregulation of the economy to align prices with market forces. In the transition to a more productive economy, jobs in traditionally protected sectors are replaced by jobs in new more competitive sectors, existing skills become obsolete and sectoral productivity shifts revamp the structure of wages.

While female workers have also been affected (Saavedra, 1999), there is increasing concern that this process may have strained the capability of certain groups of men to fulfill their traditional socially prescribed role as "providers" in the family and thus challenged their self-identity. Barker (1998) reports on research suggesting that men's employment status and eamings affect their decisions about family formation, continuation, and ties to their children. Further qualitative sociological work has linked increasing violence, alcoholism, and substance abuse among some men in the region to the challenges that economic changes pose to their "breadwinner" role (Barker, 1998).

Although often focused on non-randomly-selected vulnerable male subpopulations (e.g., low-income young men), this sociological research alludes to overall trends of declining male labor force participation, and increasing unemployment or wage deterioration of these specific groups as evidence of economic intramale marginalization. However, it has not been carefully ascertained whether or not this presumed male economic marginalization is indeed an economy-wide phenomenon. In fact, the standard economic theory (e.g., Hecksher-Ohlin) behind ongoing reforms predict that more vulnerable workers (ie., the unskilled) should benefit the most. Although contrary evidence points to an increase in wage inequality in many Latin American countries during the 1980s and early 1990s , trends in recent years have been less researched. Moreover, while unemployment is a cause of increasing concern and, overall, real wages have been on the rise in most of the region in the 1990s, little work has focused on changes in intramale differentials. More micro-level research is thus needed to carefully examine the hypothesis of intra-male marginalization during recent economic restructuring in various countries in the region.

In this study we use evidence from available household surveys broadly covering the period 1988-97 in urban areas of Argentina, Brazil and Costa Rica. We carefully examine the following questions: 1) Is there evidence of deterioration in the income generation capacity of certain groups of men? 2) Have certain groups of men lagged behind in accruing any of the wage growth entailed by economic reforms? 3) What are their socioeconomic and labor market characteristics?.

Although we characterize employment and unemployment patterns, we mainly rely on a very detailed analysis of changes in the wage structure in these countries.

'See for example Robbins (1997) and Cragg and Epelbaum (1996).

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