Different worlds of welfare in a heterogeneous country: the Brazilian case

Helena Cruz Castanheira, University of Pennsylvania
Eduardo L. G. Rios-Neto, Cedeplar, UFMG

This paper applies a typology derived from the technique Grade of Membership (GOM) to define profiles of social policies and family structure among Brazilian individuals studied from a Brazilian Consumption Expenditure Survey conducted in 2008-2009. It draws on Esping-Andersen's framework to the analysis of welfare state regimes, but it incorporates the context of a heterogeneous country with high income inequality and truncation of coverage of social policies in the areas of health, education, and social security protection. Three main variables theme were used based on Esping-Andersen (1990 and 1999). The first one refers to “decommodification” and it says in what extent the family do not depend of the market. We use the following variables: public conditional cash transfer program, public retirement fund, public education and public health. The theme “commodification” is related to what extent the individual is a commodity and depends of the market. Variables used: type of occupation, private health, education and social security. Finally, we use the “familization” concept and analyze in what extent the family has a traditional bread winner model measured by the family arrangement and women occupation. Four latent profiles were identified in each age group (0-5, 6-17, 18-24, 25-59 and 60 or more). The application of the GOM technique shows that social coverage, the public and market divide, and income inequality interact with the individuals' life cycle to display a complex web of coverage (and lack of coverage) of the relevant social risks. The paper shows the relevance of Esping-Andersen's typology, but also the need to complement it with other measures well suited to a society that is highly unequal.