COMPORTAMENTO DA DESIGUALDADE SOCIAL FRENTE AO DESEMPENHO DAS POLÍTICAS EDUCACIONAIS NA “DÉCADA DA EDUCAÇÃO”

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to analyze the behavior of the Brazilian inequality, during the period from 1997 to 2007, also known as the “education decade”. The purpose consists of developing, from an empiric and conceptual way, a causal relation approach between education and inequality. It is noticed that social inequality in association to education has been an object of study in a wide rage of different fields of knowledge, such as Economy, Social Science, Education, Psychology, and among others. The Brazilian case, which has been declared unshakable throughout history, is based on a perverse unequal income distribution, and has provoked all sorts of reactions. Some researchers classify the subject as the biggest and the most complex problem of this country, whereas the majority of the people regard it as a disturbing natural thing. The fact is that, due to globalization, which has widely shown the inequality among humanity, the issue has become even more instigated, therefore studies must be carried out to ensure a sustainable and long lasting development. The first step taken in order to do this investigation was to uncover the phenomenon, based on the scenery of the evolution of poverty at the threshold of the century, as well as when the most principal unequal measures were taken. Next, it is discussed the panorama of the educational performance from human capital theory and its education’s rates of return, when Tinbergen's race is presented in the turn of the century. Finally, it is made an analysis of the role of the education in the inequality behavior, from its expansion and heterogeneity, from the social welfare functions, also known as Lorenz and the first and second order stochastic dominances, from some counterfactual simulations, besides some considerations about the role of the minimum salary and the income transfer programs.