A Dynamic Analysis of Household Decision-Making: The Brazilian Case

Abstract

This study has two central objectives. We first describe in detail the structure and behavior of Brazilian families during their life cycle. [1] Secondly, we investigate the main socioeconomic determining factors of alterations in families structure and behavior over the past few decades. We therefore have two interrelating objectives. We describe how the patterns have changed in the past few decades, on the one hand, while on the other, we investigate how these changes in the structure and behavior of the families can be explained by concomitant variations in the Brazilian socioeconomic environment. [1] The analytical unit with which we will be working is the household and not the family. Neverthless, we are using the word family throughout this study.