NTA Brazil Seminar
Intergenerational Aspects of Social Policy in Brazil
September 22, 2009
Cedeplar-UFMG, Brazil
The conference went really well! We had a very productive day divided in 5 different sessions. The seminar was attended by over 100 people, with the presence of members from the federal government, state government, the World Bank, academia and students (both grad and undergrad).
In the first session, O projeto NTA e sua importância em um contexto de profundas mudanças demográficas, Tim Miller gave a general overview of the project and its main results focusing on Latin America. He also gave a second talk, in the same session, discussing fiscal impacts of population aging. Cassio presented the NTA Brazil project and main results. The last speaker was Jose Alberto Carvalho, from Cedeplar, who discussed the demographic transition in Brazil and its social and economic implications.
The second session, Transferências públicas para idosos: gastos com previdência e assistência social, focused on the Brazilian public pension system. Bernardo Queiroz gave a general view of the evolution of retirement in Brazil and the incentives the pension system creates to early retirement. Eduardo Pereira, from the Public Pension Ministry - Brazilian Social Security Administration, discussed the general features of the system, recent reforms and future sitution. Marcelo Caetano, from IPEA - Ministry of Planning, compared the Brazilian system to other countries showing that we are facing problems similar to nations with older population age structure and a much more mature pension system. Lastly, Romulo Paes, from FIOCRUZ and UNIMED, talked about the large non-contributory pension system in Brazil which attends 1.5 million elderly and spends about 1% of GDP per year.
The third session, Transferências Públicas para Crianças e Idosos: os Gastos com Saúde Pública, focused on public and private health. Luciana Servo, from IPEA, presented a new data base on health expenditures in Brazil. The database is a satellite account of the National Accounts. Romulo Paes, from FIOCRUZ and UNIMED, talked about private expenditures on health, the issues faced by private and public providers and how epidemiological and demographic changes will affect the health care costs in Brazil.
The fourth session, Transferências Públicas para Crianças: Investimentos em Educação Pública e Assistência Social, discussed public education in Brazil. Jorge Abrao, from IPEA, provided a overview of public spending and enrollement over time in Brazil by levels (primary, secondary and terciary). Andre Portela, from the Department of Economics at FGV, gave a lecture on investiment in early childhood education and its impacts over life and show how Brazil spends much more, per capita, on terciary education than primary compared to other developed and developing nations.
The last session, Síntese do seminário com reflexões sobre os aspectos intergeracionais das políticas sociais no Brasil, was a synthesis of the seminar and pointed out important research questions and the importance of considering intergenerational aspects of social policy. There was also a discussion on the political economy of social reform in Brazil, mainly public pensions. The session was coordinated by Eduardo Rios-Neto, from Cedeplar, with the participation of Tim Miller, Jorge Abrao, Fernando Gaiger, from the Ministry of Social Development, and Michele Gragnolati, from The World Bank.
http://www.ufmg.br/aovivo/face
More information on the seminar is available here:
http://www.cedeplar.ufmg.br/noticias-e-eventos/proximos-seminarios/aspectos-intergeracionais-das-politicas-sociais-no-brasil.php
The seminar was organized by the Brazilian NTA team with support from CEDEPLAR-UFMG, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the International Development Research Center (IDRC).