Intergenerational Gains in Educational Attainment: How Do Rural Brazilians Fare after Education Reform?

Erica J. Mullen, Brown University

This study analyzes educational change across generations within families in the contexts of an expansion of the educational system and more recent conditional cash transfer programs incentivizing education. We use rare longitudinal data collected within a rural population allowing us to analyze educational gains across three generations within families near the city of Altamira, Pará, Brazil. We focus on the relationships between the level of education in the older generations and the change in education across generations. Descriptive results show an expected pattern of increasing levels of education over time, and how educational status is and is not transmitted. Parents’ education bears little relationship to own education of members of the second generation, but education of the second generation is positively correlated with education of their children. Regression analyses will model the education of the younger generation as a function of their parents’ and grandparents’ education and other characteristics.