DOES CULTURE BACKGROUND MATTER? INTERNATIONAL IMMIGRATION AND RETIREMENT TRENDS IN BRAZIL AND REGIONS

The objective of this paper is to compare the labor force participation trends and retirement behavior of the native-born Brazilians with the largest foreign-born populations in Brazil, the Japanese, the Germans the Italians and Spaniards. More specifically, we aim to investigate whether cultural background plays a role in determining one’s behavior in the labor market and retirement. In the second step, we analyze whether regions with high prevalence of immigrant groups, from these countries, have higher labor force participation and working hours compared to regions with lower presence of immigrants. The study of these  groups in comparison with the Brazilian-born population is interesting since workers in each country have very different labor market behavior. In addition to that, each immigrant group has experienced a very different process of assimilation and integration into the rest of the population.  We use census data, from IPUMS, to answer the research question. The research design combines descriptive analysis and regression models on the trends in labor force participation across regions of Brazil.