Stigma, labor supply and human capital formation: Evidences from assistance programs’ recipients in Brazil

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between stigma and economic decisions of those individuals benefited from any federal assistance program. Stigma is defined as the disutility resultant in participa¬ting in any assistance program. In particular, the paper estimates that stigma is negatively associated with unemployment in the family for adults and higher school attendance and more schooling among children. More studies on stigma should be conducted to truly identify the causality between the eco¬nomic variables in order to debate with Moffit (1983) which suggests that stigma reduces the number of worked hours.