Racial Inequality in Education in Brazil: A Twins Fixed-Effects Approach

Abstract

Racial disparities in education in Brazil (and elsewhere) are well documented. Because this research typically examines educational variation between individuals in different families, however, it cannot disentangle whether racial differences in education are due to racial discrimination or to structural differences in unobserved neighborhood and family characteristics. To address this common data limitation, we use an innovative within-family twin approach that takes advantage of the large sample of Brazilian adolescent twins classified as different races in the 1982 and 1987–2009 Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios. We first examine the contexts within which adolescent twins in the same family are labeled as different races to determine the characteristics of families crossing racial boundaries. Then, as a way to hold constant shared unobserved and observed neighborhood and family characteristics, we use twins fixed-effects models to assess whether racial disparities in education exist between twins and whether such disparities vary by gender. We find that even under this stringent test of racial inequality, the nonwhite educational disadvantage persists and is especially pronounced for nonwhite adolescent boys.

Biogeographic Ancestry, Cognitive Ability and Socioeconomic Outcomes

“…Consider research based on sibling designs, which can distinguish between discriminatory and intergenerational effects. A number of studies in the economics literature have utilized sibling control designs in this fashion [81][82][83][84][85][86]. Unfortunately, they differ somewhat in design (e.g., raw vs. SES-controlled results for between-family regressions), and do not report standardized effect measures, so we were unable to quantitatively meta-analyze them.…”

Assessing Student’s Achievement Gaps between Ethnic Groups in Brazil

“…This cultural homogeneity (or social clustering and consequently social pressure) is not as strongly observed for Blacks and Whites in Brazil as observed for example in the USA. The large percentage of “mixed” populations in Brazil, without clear cultural borders, (i.e., Pardos) linking White, Black or Pardo parents result in a highly heterogeneous society where ethnic identity dilutes and thus peer-pressure becomes weaker although the sense of ethnic group exists among whites and blacks [57]. At the same time, Brazil has an European-centric educational system, where much attention is given to history and culture of Europe, to which White students directly relate, feeling empowered and motivated, sometimes developing a sense of superiority over other ethnic groups particularly Black and Indigenous populations.…”

New Evidence of Skin Color Bias and Health Outcomes Using Sibling Difference Models: A Research Note

“…In their work on assortative mating in Brazil, Gullickson and Torche ( 2014 ) found a negative association between higher educational attainment and marrying spouses with darker skin color, suggesting a market exchange predicated on complexion. Using an analytic approach similar to our study, Marteleto and Dondero ( 2016 ) used Brazilian birth register data and found that differential skin color designations predict educational disparities, even among twins. Similarly, Schwartzman ( 2007 ) found that highly educated nonwhite parents in Brazil are more likely than their less-educated counterparts to categorize their children as white.…”

“…Region is, of course, but one potential confounder. Although other work has used within-family fixed-effects (FE) methodology (Marteleto and Dondero 2016 ), included indicators of complexion rather than discrete racial classification (Monk 2014 ), and sought to examine health outcomes patterned on these distinctions (Monk 2015 ), we make a novel contribution to the literature on colorism by combining these features. Moreover, we present supplementary evidence that the genetic architecture of skin tone does not likely act as a source of bias by also directly affecting the health outcome.…”