Education, Race, and Inequality: Expenditures on

Elementary Education, Racial Ideologies, and Immigration Policies in

Brazil (1889-1930)Josué L. Nobrega Jr

January, 2014Political Science

UCLA

Seminar on Brazilian History - UCLA

Research Outline• Objective: Dissertation Proposal

• Adequate Literature Review– Different traditions and disciplines (Economics, Political Science, History, Sociology) Suggestions?

– Time Period, Cases, and Research Strategy

Motivation: Regional Variation on the Provision of Adequate Educational Resources

(Municipal Level Variation – 2009)

The Centrality of Education Provision in the Discussion of Public Goods

• Cross country variation on Literacy and Schooling is important for long-term development (Mariscal and Sokoloff 2000)

• Few nations in the last century have achieved sustainable economic growth without also experiencing sustained increases in human capital investment (Barro, 1991).

• Human capital, especially primary schooling, is the main political channel for successful economies. (Lindert 2003)

• Education promotes redistribution and upward mobility, thus education provision affects levels of inequality (Higgs 1977)

• Education improve political participation and promote better governance (Lipset 1960; Glaeser et all 2004)

Primary school enrollments in comparative perspective, c.1910 Source: Chaudhary et all (2012)

Literacy rates (2008)

Brazil - Years of Schooling (1910-1970)Source- Census 1940 and PNAD 1990

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 19700

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

BlacksWhites

Motivation: Education Provision (2009) and Racial Heterogeneity (2000) at municipal level

Education in Brazil – Racial and Regional Differences

• Differences on Literacy and Schooling between Blacks and Whites are constant in all Brazilian regions (Telles 2004)

• On average, illiteracy rates are 20% higher among blacks and mixed with blacks compared to whites since the redemocratization of Brazil in 1988 for all age groups. (PNAD 2000)

• On average, the participation of Blacks among the Illiterate in Brazil is 10% higher compared to the total share of Blacks in the total population among Brazilian municipalities (PNAD 2000)

Research Question• Does Racial differences affected the provision of Educational Resources in Brazil?

• What is the Impact of Racial Heterogeneity on Government Expenditure?

• General Theoretical Question: How Racial Differences affect Governance and Public Good Provision?

Paper: Case Study: First Republic in Brazil (1890-1930)

• Constitution of 1891- Decentralization of Public Spending

and Taxation (state autonomy) - Literacy Requirement on Voting - Decentralization on School Investments

- Immigration Policies * Spread of elementary Schooling (Martinez-Fritcher 2010)

Paper- Specific Research Question

- What are the Determinants of Expenditures on Elementary Education in the period from 1890 to 1930?

- Dependent Variable: Average Expenditure on Education Per Capita

On the determinants of Educational Expenditures – Literature Review of the Rival

Explanations

General Hypothesis from the Political Economy of Institutions and Inequality

1) Endowments (Regional Effect) (Engerman and Sokoloff 1997);

2) Colonial Institutions (Slavery Effect) (Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson 2002; North, Summerhill, and Weingast 2000)

3) Political Institutions (Enfranchisement effect) (Mariscal and Sokoloff ; Nunn 2007)

4) Trade and Commodity Prices (State Revenues Effect) ( Musacchio et all 2010)

5) Crop choice (Coffee effect) (Wenegast 2010)

Working Hypothesis – Racial Effect

• The presence of the African descendent Population;

• The Presence of European Immigrants

Historical Background to justify the effect of Race: Does Brazil had Racial Policies?

Nina Rodrigues: Policies should improve the Race by adding European genes in our mix.

Oliveira Vianna: Afro-Brazilians would be a problem in the nation formation process of citizenship

Racial Arguments in Legislative Debates about Immigration: Improving the Population by adding

European Genes or selecting Whites to form a Nation?

• “Whitening” was not based only based on genetic assumptions of Mixing the Population (Gilberto Freyre interpretation in the 30’s)

• White Settlement and Immigration to Coffee plantation was also an economic, demographic and nation building project

• Public Policy Assumption based on a Racial Stratification bias

European Settler Policies

European Immigrantion

Immigrant Incentives

Results

DISCUSSION • United States and Brazil