Isolated illiteracy and access to social programs: evidence from Brazil

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether isolated illiteracy generates a barrier to knowledge about the Brazilian Federal Government’s Single Registry for social programs. Design/methodology/approach - Based on information contained in the Brazilian National Household Sample Survey (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicilios – PNAD)2014, the propensity score matching method was combined with the algorithm proposed byImbens (2015). The analyzed sample consists of two groups of illiterate individuals: isolated illiterates (IILs) (treatment group), which consists of only illiterate individuals who live with other illiterates; and proximate illiterates (PILs) (control group), which consists of illiterates who live with someone who is literate in the household. Findings - Evidence indicates that IIL individuals are, on average, less likely to know about the single registry than PIL people. Research limitations/implications - The main limitation relates to the database since the only information available in the PNAD on the access to the single registry is for the year 2014. Practical implications - The evidence found in the study reinforces the need to invest in the fight against illiteracy in Brazil. Social implications - Results show that a portion of the possible beneficiaries of social programs are still “invisible” to the government’s social protection networks, and this highlights the existence of possible errors of exclusion. Originality/value - The paper compares two groups of illiterate people, a group that lives in an isolated illiteracy situation and the other that does not. It also assesses the effect of literacy externalities on the access to the Brazilian Single Registry.