Consumo de bens nocivos à saúde e investimento em educação: uma análise a partir de contribuições da economia comportamental

Abstract

The human being's quality of life is determined by the decision-making he assumes and by several other circumstances over time. Choosing to consume products that are harmful to health results in negative consequences, while other decisions, such as investments in education, can generate positive impacts during life. In view of possible scenarios, the economic literature is concerned with explaining the behavior of economic agents. This article analyzes the demand of individuals for products that are harmful to health – alcoholic beverages and cigarettes – and for education from the perspectives of Traditional and Behavioral Economics. The empirical strategy of this study is initially based on the discussion of rationality addressed between the two perspectives. Subsequently, consumption decisions harmful to health and expenditure on education were characterized through descriptive analyzes and estimates using the Probit method, based on data from the 2017-2018 Family Budget Survey (POF). Total income, education, TV and radio are the explanatory variables of interest in this article. The results allowed to highlight several aspects defended by Behavioral Economics. The consumption of alcoholic beverages did not present significant coefficients in the explanatory variables of interest to this monograph: total income, education, TV and radio. While cigarette consumption showed negative and significant coefficients associated with these proxies. On investment in education, no significant coefficients associated with access to information were found, but the effects are positive and statistically significant for the variables total income and education.