Human capital differentials across municipalities and states in Brazil

In this paper, we investigate the distribution of more educated and skilled people in Brazilian municipalities and states. Previous evidence shows a high concentration of college educated and high skilled workers in some areas of the country. We investigate whether the increase in the number of high skill workers is faster in municipalities with high initial levels of human capital than in municipalities with lower initial levels. We develop a theoretical model to explain the convergence/divergence of regional skill levels In Brazil. We estimate OLS models based on the theoretical model to explain empirically wage differentials in Brazil. Last, we compute standard segregation and isolation measures to show the trends in the distribution of skilled workers across states and cities in Brazil. We find that educated and qualified workers are concentrated in some areas of the country and recent decades show a higher concentration of them across states and cities.human capital, segregation, regional differences, Brazil

Diálogos com o ensino médio 3: o estudante jovem no Brasil e a inserção no mercado de trabalho

The transition from youth to adult’s life is particularly characterized by the end of schooling attendance and the entrance in the labor market. There are different open possibilities for this transition, and the objective of this working paper is to apprehend some of the features related to it. For men the transition from school to the labor market mainly occurs between the ages of 17 and 19. On the other hand, for women, this transition happens at similar ages, but there is another transition, which is from school to the household. Choices are influenced by the schooling level attained by the girl. Income differentials between sexes show a slight advantage for men. However, when income per worked hour is analyzed, the values were rather similar, indicating that there is a relative homogeneity between young men and young women regarding income per hour in Brazil.secondary school, youth, education.

Fluctuations and persistence in poverty: a transient-chronic decomposition model for pseudo-panel data

Although many studies addressed poverty issues, very few of then did analyze the transient or persistent nature of this phenomenon. Encouraged by this lack of dynamic poverty analyses, the objective of this paper is to evaluate which features determine the relative position and the dynamics of the destitution state of the individual. Due to the scarcity of panel surveys in Brazil, it was used a pseudo-panel obtained from the Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD/IBGE) database in this study. With these data, the state permanence and the state transience probabilities were estimated in a Markov matrix with the application of a bivariate probit model with endogenous switching for grouped data. It was chosen as the welfare indicator the per capita household income, which was analyzed in relation to a relative poverty line. Moreover, in order to verify the sensibility of the parameters estimated in the econometric analysis, distinct poverty lines were used and also different assumptions of household scale economies and of intrahousehold relative costs were made. The transient-chronic analysis is based on the distinction between stationary and transient components of intertemporal propensity to poverty. The results enabled to identify which groups in the population were especially sensitive to the chronic and to the transient types of poverty.chronic poverty; transient poverty; state persistence; state transition; endogenous switching probit model; pseudo-panel; Brazil

Diálogos com o ensino médio 4: diversidade regional do ensino médio no Brasil analisado a partir de diferentes indicadores educacionais

Brazil is highly heterogeneous regarding schooling levels. This working paper discusses this diversity for municipalities with the use of different educational indicators related to attendance and age-grade distortion. Roughly, for 2000 data, we observed for the existence of two spatially divided “Brazis”: one with better indicators and another one with lower levels of formal education. Despite this variability, nearly all regions in Brazil showed an advance in schooling levels between 1991 and 2000. Besides that, we observed a convergence in some indicators and a divergence in others, indicating different trajectories of regional development. Finally, the areas were studied with the use of Clusters Analyses and we verified different empirical trajectories for the Minimum Areas of Comparison in Brazil.secondary school, youth, education.

Diálogos com o ensino médio 5: a escola de ensino médio no Brasil analisada a partir de dados do INEP

This working paper discusses schooling performance in secondary schools in Brazil using the ENEM as the database. Initially, we obtained different dimensions related to the student’s perception concerning himself, his school and his socioeconomic level with the use of factorial analyses. Private and public schools were compared. We observed that federal and private ones showed some resemblance, with a much better overall situation than state and municipal schools. Then, we analyzed which factors were correlated to school performance with the use of OLS and Heckman models. We noted spatial differences among states in Brazil and also amongst school in different local contexts of the educational system development. Many subjective dimensions of student’s perception were also correlated to performance, such as: the human ambient in school; teacher characteristics; socioeconomic level; the student’s interest in politics, economy, social themes and environmental issues; reading habits; and school infra-structure.secondary school, youth, education, school performance.

Diálogos com o ensino médio 1: um olhar inicial sobre o jovem no Brasil

There are many definitions of youth and of young people. For instance, the youth can be considered as a transition from the state of dependence to the adult’s life responsibilities. This period is specially touched by establishment of objectives, aspirations and desires, in particular concerning education and the school. The objective of this working paper is to present some initial analyses regarding the youth and associations to educational system in Brazil. Firstly, we observed some population trends, including the relative size decrease of the population group aged 15 to 17, indicating that there are demographic opportunities to ameliorate the educational system. After that, we verified that school frequency did not increase in Brazil between 1997 and 2007, but that there was a decrease in age-grade distortion and an increase in formal education levels in the period.secondary school, youth, education.

THE DETERMINANTS OF MIGRATION IN BRAZIL

In the present study, the neoclassic human capital model was used as the theoretical foundation for the analyses of the determinants of migration in Brazil. The empirical studies were carried on with the application of a multiple regression macro model based on the gravitational model and on the Poisson distribution. In the empirical model, the number of migrants between Brazilian mesoregions was the response variable. Many socioeconomic and criminal aspects of the origin and the destiny of the migrants were used as explanatory variables. The distance between these regions and many geographical dummies were also used as independent variables. This paper contains seven sections. The first one introduces some concepts that are related to the determinants of migration. The next section briefly shows some aspects of the Brazilian regional diversity. After this, some quantitative data about the process of migration is presented. The subsequent section discusses the theoretical models of the analysis, which is the human capital model, and presents some similar studies done by other authors. Then, is showed the methodology and the macro model of migration that were used in the empirical analysis. Finally, the main empirical results are shown and the final discussions and conclusions are presented.

Diálogos com o ensino médio 6 : o estudante de ensino médio no Brasil analisado a partir de dados do INEP

This working paper discusses the correlation between different factors and school performance in the secondary school with the use of data from INEP, such as the ENEM, and also the Demographic Census. We compared state, municipal, federal and private schools in topics, such as: student performance, sex, age and ethnic distribution, socioeconomic levels, school’s physical infrastructure, etc. Moreover, different dimensions of the student’s subjective perception regarding himself and the educational system were obtained with the use of factorial analyses. These were related to: social atmosphere in the school, student’s socioeconomic level, student’s interests and habits, etc. In general, federal and private schools showed a much superior profile than state and municipal ones. Finally, we applied OLS models to investigate some of the factors that were correlated with school performance, including individual attributes, school features and the subjective dimensions of perception.secondary school, youth, education, school performance.

Diálogos com o ensino médio 2: o ensino médio no Brasil visto a partir do modelo Profluxo e outros indicadores demográficos

The youth can be considered as a transition from the state of dependence to the adult’s life responsibilities. This period is specially touched by establishment of objectives, aspirations and desires, in particular regarding education and the school. The objective of this working paper is to present some discussions concerning associations between the youth and the educational system in Brazil. We present drop-out rates and other educational indicators, and also applied the Profluxo model, always with a focus in the secondary school. We observed that the proportion of students graduating from primary school increased sharply in Brazil between 1997 and 2007. Moreover, relatively few students did dropout from secondary school, indicating that this was not the central problem in this schooling level. The main dropout problems were observed between primary and secondary schools and especially between secondary and tertiary ones. We also analyzed different groups of the population. We observed that the advances occurred for all of them, but that the heterogeneity in schooling levels persisted. White and yellow people and women had much better indicators than blacks, pardos, indigenous and men.secondary school, youth, education.

The determinants of migration in Brazil

In the present study, the neoclassic human capital model was used as the theoretical foundation for the analyses of the determinants of migration in Brazil. The empirical studies were carried on with the application of a multiple regression macro model based on the gravitational model and on the Poisson distribution. In the empirical model, the number of migrants between Brazilian mesoregions was the response variable. Many socioeconomic and criminal aspects of the origin and the destiny of the migrants were used as explanatory variables. The distance between these regions and many geographical dummies were also used as independent variables. This paper contains seven sections. The first one introduces some concepts that are related to the determinants of migration. The next section briefly shows some aspects of the Brazilian regional diversity. After this, some quantitative data about the process of migration is presented. The subsequent section discusses the theoretical models of the analysis, which is the human capital model, and presents some similar studies done by other authors. Then, is showed the methodology and the macro model of migration that were used in the empirical analysis. Finally, the main empirical results are shown and the final discussions and conclusions are presented.