Determinantes, dinâmica e consequência de trabalho infantil no Brasil

Author(s)

Temidayo James Aransiola

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Economia
• Defense date: 2017-02-21

Examining board members

Marcelo Justus dos Santos; Andrea Rodrigues Ferro; Ana Lucia Kassouf

• Advisor: Marcelo Justus dos Santos

Abstract

This master's thesis is divided in four independent articles. The main objective is to fill some of the gaps concerning the determinants, dynamic and consequence of child labor in Brazil. In the first essay, we explore the cultural-historical concept of child labor as a natural phenomenon in Brazil. For this, we review the literature concerning the history of child labor, focusing on its social and constitutional concepts. The main conclusion from the first paper is that the concept of child labor as natural, i.e., part of the development and education of children, inclusively to deviate them from delinquency, was historically rooted and continues present in the mentality of the Brazilian society. In the second essay, we investigate the determinants of child labor rate in Brazil, emphasizing the role of the Bolsa Família program and the Labor Inspection conducted by the Ministry of Labor. For this, data from 2004-2009 and 2011-2014 PNADs of the 27 federation units were used to estimate panel data models. In this second essay, we found no conclusive empirical evidence which permits to sustain the hypothesis that the Bolsa Família program and the Labor Inspection contributed to reduce child labor. In the third article, we investigated the probability of intergenerational persistence of child labor so as to find the point at which the risk of transmission of child labor among two generations of the same family turns minimum. For this, we used a pooled sample of 2004 to 2014 PNAD data to estimate probit models. In this article, we found evidence which corroborates previous literature about the existence of child labor trap in Brazil. Particularly, the risk of child labor in a generation has negative and nonlinear relationship with the age at which parents started working. In the fourth essay, also using probit regressions, we empirically analyzed the relationship between child labor and mental depression using 2008 PNAD data and its special supplement concerning health. In this last essay, we found the first empirical evidence regarding a positive relationship between work during childhood and mental depression during adulthood (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 15/21410-8 - Determinants of child labor: an analysis with dynamic painel data of Brazilian States
• Grantee: Temidayo James Aransiola
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master