About sad legacies: a study of the intergenerational occupational legacy in Brazil

Purpose - This article aims to analyze the workers' probabilities of following their parents’ occupational legacy and whether these individuals are paid differently compared to those who opted for occupations different from their parents, in Brazil. Design/methodology/approach - To that end, the occupational legacy probability equation was estimated as the quantile wage equations with sample selection bias correction and the wage decomposition for Brazil from the microdata of the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) of 2014. It was found that families have a strong influence on the process of choosing the careers of their children. The average probability of a young person following the occupational legacy of their parents was 41.63%. This percentage is different when analyzing different groups of individuals, such as being male or female, being in a traditional or single parent family, being in an income household lower or higher per capita. Findings - The results also confirm the hypothesis that workers who tend to follow the occupational legacy have lower wages than individuals who choose other occupations and that this may cause a “poverty trap” since the lower the salary quantile, the stronger the “trap” as economically disadvantaged young people tend to follow in their parents' footsteps and to contribute to family income they face a tradeoff, opt between work or study, which ends up disrupting their education and forcing young people to entering the job market early, performing secondary occupations with lower income and arduous work, generating a “vicious cycle of poverty”. Research limitations/implications - Given the database, we are comprised to its most recent version. Practical implications - This is the first work on Latin American problem of occupational legacy. Originality/value - This is the first work on Latin American problem of occupational legacy.