Racial Inequality and Child Mortality in Brazil

Abstract

This paper addresses the issue of racial inequality in Brazil. The authors apply demographic techniques to sample data from the 1980 census to estimate survival probabilities of children born to white and nonwhite mothers in metropolitan areas. Because mortality bears a direct and obvious relationship to human welfare estimates of the probability of death are useful for comparing living standards of whites and nonwhites in Brazil. The results of applying the Brass method to 1950 and 1980 census data indicate the magnitude and the persistence of racial inequalities in length of life in Brazil. In 1940/1950 the mortality experience of children born to white mothers was equivalent to an average expectation of life at birth of 47.5 years. The comparable figure for nonwhite children was 40 years. By 1970/1980 whites reached an average expectation of life of 66.1 years. The rate for nonwhites rose to 59.4 years. Because both groups experienced about the same rate of improvement over the 30-year period the gap between the 2 remained high. The findings of this study only imply the presence of exclusionary practices that deprive nonwhite children of health services that are otherwise available to white children. Still the discrimination hypothesis--which is admittedly speculative--is indirectly strengthened by 3 observations: 1) the interpretation is consistent with the conclusions of earlier studies that document the presence of other forms of racial discrimination in Brazil; 2) there is no evidence that nonwhite mothers endorse sharply different ideas about nutrition child rearing or about modern medical care; and 3) residential segregation by race in Brazil is not nearly as pronounced as 2 of the alternative explanations necessarily imply. The authors conclude that discrimination is a plausible interpretation of the observed racial differences in child mortality in metropolitan Brazil. Yet additional data are required to document whether discrimination exists and to identify the precise mechanisms through which exclusionary practices differentially affect the proximate determinants of child mortality among whites and nonwhites in urban areas.