In this article, we analyze the causes of the swings in the demand for labor force associated with their level of schooling, with special emphasis on the Brazilian manufacturing industry, in the period 1994-2008. Two theories have been considered to explain the sources of these swings: the Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem (H-O) and the ability bias hypothesis. In the empirical analysis, a sector level decomposition analysis was performed to verify which theory best fit the data. The empirical results give some support to the ability bias hypothesis when higher education labor force sample in used in the empirical analysis. Additionally, we found out that the international trade forces emphasized by the H-O Theorem are relevant in the Brazilian economy. However, we also found that the increase of intermediate level of education labor force supply was the main cause of schooling increase in the manufacturing industry labor force.
Manufacturing industry; Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem; ability bias hypothesis; labor force qualification