RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAMILY'S SIZE AND THE HIGHER FORMATION OF BRAZILIANS

Abstract

The promotion of education, as an investment form in human capital, is indispensable to the acquisition of knowledge and technology, providing a country economic development and therefore, growth. So, a growing demand for the acquisition of higher education has been observed, indicating that higher educations has gained recognition by society. The access to higher education is related, among others factors, to the families´ wealth available to invest in their children´s education. Thus, smaller families tend the have a larger income per capita and consequently, larger possibility to provide their children higher educational. Therefore, this paper wants to analyze the relationship between family size and the number of college enrollment level during the year of 2014, basing on the Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD). The results suggest that one more member in a family reduces the probability of a family member to pursue either complete or incomplete higher education. Thus, this paper aims at contributing to the development of public policies which will guarantee the access to higher education by all Brazilians, considering that larger families have smaller resources to invest in higher education.