Family structure, socio-economic status and child outcomes in Brazil: health, education and labour in the childhood

Ana Oliveira, CEDEPLAR/UFMG
Andre J. Caetano, Centro de Desenvolvimento e Planejamento Regional (CEDEPLAR)

The purpose is to shed light on the large differences between poor and rich Brazilian households regarding children’s outcomes in health, education and labour force participation. Gradients are strong, so people in bottom quantiles of income report worse outcomes for children than do people in top and the relationship between household income and children’s outcomes becomes more pronounced as children grow older. These facts motivate a study of the role of family structure and socioeconomic status, including income and employment of their members, in children’s outcomes. Data come from the 1998 Brazilian Household Sample Survey, which collects demographic, education, labour force, income and health information for parents and children. To test the implications of the model, distribution of various measures are examined by age and whether income is above or below the low income cut-off; and to investigate these relationships in a multivariate context, estimates from regression models are made.