Origem familiar e desigualdade de renda na agricultura

Abstract

This paper analyzes the determinants of agricultural income and studies the possible overestimation of the effect of education in earnings equations that do not include any proxies for family background. Earnings equations are estimated for persons occupied in agriculture, including explanatory variables commonly used in the literature, and adding the area of the agricultural enterprise and three factors associated with family background: the father’s schooling, the mother’s schooling and the father’s job. The results show that these three factors are important determinants of earnings in the primary sector. Their inclusion in the equation reduced the effect of own schooling on income. Such decrease suggests an overestimation of the influence of education in studies that do not consider the family background.