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Founded more than 15 years ago, FGV Social seeks
to relate applied research to debate in society and
the implementation of public policies. Acting in
four broad areas – Income and Well-Being; Work
and Production; Microfinance and Mobility; and
Human Development and Well-Being – the study
center contributes to the spreading of knowledge
and inclusive development in Brazil.
Among the research it is carrying out, FGV Social has
an important project that connects education and
the job market, entitled “Is education synonymous
with better salaries?”. This project is aimed at
showing the financial return on investment in
education for individuals, as well as finding out
how young people view education in their lives and
appraising demand for it in the current market.
To answer this question, the center has been
conducting studies since the turn of the century.
In 2009, it created the Educational Development
Studies Network (REDE), based on a proposal
submitted to the Brazilian Ministry of Education
(MEC). At the time, FGV Social coordinated a group
of FGV researchers doing applied research in order
to provide federal education policy managers
with information on basic education. The current
proposal is to continue this work in line with some
new trends at FGV, such as internationalization,
the use of communication and information
technologies, and matrix-based actions.
First of all, the project aims to empower potential
students with information on the private returns
from their qualification choices, through interactive
databases generated by the research on websites
where they can project their pay in line with their
profession and academic qualifications. Another
goal, on the supply side, is to support decision-
making by FGV in the education sector, as well as
remain aligned with the institution’s mission to
promote national development, fostering debate
on the impact of public policies on education’s
social returns.
The research linked to the project has been updated
andenhancedover theyears, andmajor conclusions
have already been reached. Studies basedonmicro-
data from the Brazilian government’s National
Household Sample Surveys (Pnad) have shown
that there are many motivations behind higher
education demand. In an analysis of individuals
who had been in education for more than 12 years,
just 37.4% had been in higher education, and
94.5% of these people had completed it. Of people
with a university degree, 79.5% were working in
areas related to it. The 5.5% of people who had
started but not completed a degree gave several
reasons for this, including lack of supply (8%), lack
of demand (66.1%), and other motives (26%).
The 62.2% of people who had not had any higher
education gave many reasons for this, mainly lack
of interest (86.4%), as well as lack of supply (5.4%),
lack of money (4.2%), and other reasons (3.9%).
The data also shows that the higher a person’s level
of education, the higher their income. For example,
people’s income rises 8% for every year of high
school education they completed, up to the fourth
year. Their income also increases as much as 21%
for every year of higher education, depending on
their chosen profession. In other words, the return
is extremely high.
The project’s next step is to complete an
analysis of executive education students’
feedback and behavior.