The effects of brazilian government policies on higher education

• Ano de defesa: 2016
• Autor(a) principal: Alvarenga, Camila Rafaela
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Viçosa
• Palavras-chave em Português: Desenvolvimento econômico; Capital humano; Educação - Aspectos econômicos; Ensino superior; Ciências Agrárias
• Link de acesso: http://www.locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/9903

The main goal of this paper is to develop a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model that explains how governmental incentives for higher education impact on educational choices of young individuals. Human capital attainment through higher education gives poverty-trapped individuals a chance to escape poverty. In Brazil, incentives in the form of educational loans (FIES), college scholarships (ProUni) and expansion of public universities (REUNI) are some of the paths through which the government may affect human capital accumulation. Among other things, the analytical results indicate that agents who have enough resources to succeed in the selection process will further their studies in the public system, and that financially constrained individuals may prefer working and saving in detriment of their studies. The partial equilibrium analysis reveals that the FIES fund allows that some financially constrained individuals be given a chance to attend university, as does the ProUni scholarship. However, the analysis suggests that REUNI is the most effective educational incentive in the sense that it favors equality of opportunity in the higher education system.