Primeiras evidências sobre os determinantes da duração dos cursos de mestrado em economia no Brasil

The purpose ofthis paper is to determine, using duration models, which characteristics of Economics graduate students affec ttheir probability of concluding their courses. The Kaplan-Meyer estimator pointed out the graduate institution, the undergraduate institution, the entry year, and the relative grade as statistically significant. The Cox model and the parametric model showed that besides the entry year, the relative grade is important for the duration of the Master program. There is, therefore, some indication that it would be important to increase the demand for performance and decrease the length of the courses. It is necessary to observe that this paper constitutes a first at tempt to address the question. Many of the graduate institutions do not have organized data on their students, and this way could not be included in the sample. We hope, however, that the results obtained here stimulate these institutions to gather information on their students and that the estimations could be done again in the fixture using a more representative sample. A better understanding of the subject would allow the different graduate institutions to change their policies, reducing the duration of their courses without loosing quality. The ultimate result would be a better allocation of the resources that are mainly public