| Hello, *|NOME|* Last Wednesday, December 12, during the 44th Meeting of the Brazilian Society of Econometrics in Fortaleza, Ceará, the first edition of the special session organized by the Institute for Mobility and Social Development (IMDS), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Brazilian Society of Econometrics (SBE) was held, dealing with the theme "Youth in Brazil". Morgan Doyle, IDB representative in Brazil, and Flávia Chein, president of SBE, stressed the importance of developing the skills of young people, a population group that is far from homogeneous, and of doing so from insights that academic production can provide, for the growth and development of society. José Luíz Rossi Junior, an economist at the IDB, took the opportunity to announce that the IDB will soon launch a document in partnership with several institutions, including the IMDS, with research on social issues, including youth – a topic considered strategic for the institution. Rossi commented that the issues are similar in several countries, such as the issue of violence in Uruguay and young "neither-nors" in Argentina. Paulo Tafner, CEO of IMDS, highlighted the quality of the works submitted, congratulating the winners and emphasizing the importance of the theme for the country. He then made a presentation about the challenges facing Brazilian youth, particularly in relation to productivity. Points related to capacity development, social mobility, productive insertion, and challenges to the advancement of productivity in the country were presented. Tafner stressed that 30% of young Brazilians did not complete basic education and that the percentage of young people attending higher education is low and stable in time. Comparing the level of education between children and parents, he showed that the percentage of children who exceeded their father's schooling is 68%, a number pointed out as “good, but not a great result for the country, because the parents’ percentage was already not very high". He also discussed the importance of the family context for educational development, stating that it is worrisome that even among the highest socioeconomic levels the quality of learning is not at a good level. Finally, he compared the average annual productivity gain between Brazil and Asia, Africa, and South America, highlighting that the period of growth of the demographic bonus was not well used in the social development of the country, which poses an additional challenge for the next generations. Then, the BID-IMDS-SBE 2022 Award was proferred. Solange Gonçalves and Renata Narita received the certificate of second place for the article "Household job search and labor supply of secondary wage earners", also co-authored by Naercio Menezes-Filho. Luiz Brotherhoood won the certificate of first place for the article "Income-Based Affirmative Action in College Admissions", written with João Ramos and Bernard Herskovic. Gonçalves presented the highlights of the research, in which the authors sought to analyze the interaction between intra-family decisions of job offers – particularly the relationship between the decision of young people and that of their parents, especially their mothers. Among the results, it was noted that the increase in the entry of mothers into the labor market negatively impacts the labor supply of young offspring. Brotherhood and co-authors studied the potential efficiency gain of affirmative actions in university admissions, seeking to understand whether the gains of the beneficiaries of the policy outweigh the losses of those who can no longer access the vacancies. The results suggest efficiency gains when taking into account the human capital accumulated between the two groups of young people before university. To read the full articles, click here for the first place and here for the second. See you in the next IMDS Letter! Paulo Tafner CEO |
