The added worker effect for children in Brazil

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to test the hypothesis of the existence of the effect of the added worker for children in Brazil. The paper aims to identify whether a situation of unemployment of the head of the household will lead some daughter or son in the family to enter the economically active population (EAP). The database used was the Monthly Employment Survey conducted by IBGE, which allows the construction of panels for longitudinal data analysis. The hypothesis was tested for at least one child aged 10 to 18, between 2002 and 2013, for the metropolitan areas of Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Porto Alegre, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Recife, which make up the area covered by the Monthly Employment Survey (PME). This study accepts the existence of differential by gender of the head of the household for the added worker effect for children ages 10-18. The results showed that there was a greater positive effect for male heads of household than for female heads of household. The variable of transition of the son or daughter to employed activity showed no statistical significance that would allow us to assume the existence of the effect. The hypothesis of the existence of a differential by gender was confirmed, but in the opposite direction from the original hypothesis.