Menos é mais?: uma análise da relação entre os gastos do domicílio e o número de filhos residentes

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to test the association between the familys number of children and the total spent per child in the household. Although this work is based on the theory of the trade-off between the quantity and the quality of children, proposed initially by Becker, it innovates by using data of spending as a proxy of the investment on the child. The association is tested for total spending of the household per child, the spending with education per child, the spending with leisure and culture per child and the spending with health per child, using the data from POF (Pesquisa de Orçamento Familiar) of 2002-2003 and the multiple regression model and the Tobit model. The results point to a decline of the amount spent with each resident child when the number of children raises. This decline is more significant for the spending per child with education, which suggests that the increasing in the number of children is related to a new distribution of resources that priories the essential spends, in the place of the investments on the child, such as spends with education.