The impact of reducing subsidies to the University Restaurant on student access at University of Brasilia in Brazil

Abstract

This work seeks to identify the impact of reducing subsidies granted by the University of Brasília to pay for undergraduate students' access to the Institution's University Restaurant, seeking to compare results by type of meal, by personal characteristics of restaurant users and by campuses. The Differences-in-Differences method and ordinary least squares linear regression were used to analyze the database with 24,341 students, with information from the period between March and October 2018. The control group was composed of students who had 100 % of subsidized meals and students with a lower subsidy were part of the treatment group. The results of this research provide evidence that there was a negative impact on access to the RU for undergraduate students who are not participants in the Student Assistance Program. The data indicate that consumption in general fell by around six meals per month, compared to the control group, controlled for all variables in the models. It can also be seen that the greatest impact occurred at lunch, followed by dinner and then breakfast. In relation to the Campus, when compared, it is observed that the FUP and FGA treaties have negative impacts compared to the Darcy Ribeiro campus, while the FCE have positive impacts.