Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T07:59:50.513Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE RISE AND FALL OF BRAZILIAN INEQUALITY: 1981–2004

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2008

Francisco H. G. Ferreira ,
Phillippe G. Leite  and
Julie A. Litchfield
Francisco H. G. Ferreira*
Affiliation:
The World Bank
Phillippe G. Leite
Affiliation:
The World Bank
Julie A. Litchfield
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
*
Address correspondence to: Francisco H. G. Ferreira, Research Department, The World Bank, 1818 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA; e-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Brazil's Gini coefficient rose from 0.57 in 1981 to 0.63 in 1989, before falling back to 0.56 in 2004. Poverty incidence rose from 0.30 in 1981 to 0.33 in 1993, before falling to 0.22 in 2004. This paper presents a preliminary investigation of the determinants of Brazil's distributional reversal over this period. The rise in inequality in the 1980s appears to have been driven by increases in educational attainment in a context of convex returns, and by high and accelerating inflation. Although the secular decline in inequality, which began in 1993, is associated with declining inflation, it also appears to have been driven by four structural and policy changes, namely, declining returns to education; pronounced rural-urban convergence; increases in social assistance transfers targeted to the poor; and a possible decline in racial inequality. Falling inequality has made a substantial contribution to poverty reduction.

Keywords

BrazilIncome DistributionInequalityPoverty
Type
Articles
Information
Macroeconomic Dynamics , Volume 12 , Supplement S2: Inequality , September 2008 , pp. 199 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ahuja, V., Bidani, B., Ferreira, F.H.G. and Walton, M. (1997): Everyone's Miracle?: Revisiting Poverty and Inequality in East Asia. Washington, DC: The World Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amadeo, E. and Camargo, J.M. (1997): Brazil: Regulation and flexibility in the labor market. In Edwards, S. and Lustig, N. (eds.), Labor Markets in Latin America. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Azzoni, C. (1994): Crescimento econômico e convergência das rendas regionais: O caso brasileiro. Anais do XXIIôEncontro Nacional de Economia (ANPEC) 1, 185–205.Google Scholar
Barros, R.P., Henriques, R. and Mendonça, R. (2000) A estabilidade inaceitável: Desigualdade e pobreza no Brasil. In Henriques, R. (ed.), Desigualdade e Pobreza no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: IPEA.Google Scholar
Blejer, M. and Guerrero, I. (1990) The impact of macroeconomic policies on income distribution: An empirical study of the Philippines. Review of Economics and Statistics LXXII (3), 414–423.Google Scholar
Bonelli, R and Sedlacek, G.L. (1989) Distribuição de renda: Evolução no último quarto de século. In Sedlacek, G.L. and Barros, R. Paes de (eds.), Mercado de Trabalho e Distribuição de Renda: Uma Coletânea (Rio de Janeiro: IPEA; Série Monográfica #35).Google Scholar
Bourguignon, F. (1979) Decomposable income inequality measures. Econometrica 47, 901–920.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourguignon, F., Ferreira, F.H.G. and Lustig, N. (2005) The Microeconomics of Income Distribution Dynamics in East Asia and Latin America. Washington, DC: The World Bank and Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cardoso, E. (1992) Inflation and Poverty. NBER working paper 4006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cardoso, E., Paes de Barros, R. and Urani, A. (1995) Inflation and unemployment as determinants of inequality in Brazil: The 1980s. In R. Dornbusch, R. and Edwards, S. (eds), Reform, Recovery and Growth: Latin America and the Middle-East. Chicago: University of Chicago Press for the NBER.Google Scholar
Corseuil, C.H.L. and Foguel, M.N. (2002) Uma Sugestão de Deflatores para Rendas Obtidas a partir de Algumas Pesquisas Domiciliares do IBGE. IPEA texto para discussão 897.Google Scholar
Cowell, F.A. (1980) On the structure of additive inequality measures. Review of Economic Studies 47, 521–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowell, F.A. (1995) Measuring Inequality, 2nd ed.Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Cowell, F.A. and Jenkins, S.P. (1995) How much inequality can we explain? A methodology and an application to the USA. Economic Journal 105, 421–430.Google Scholar
Datt, G., and Ravallion, M. (1992) Growth and redistribution components of changes in poverty measures: A decomposition with applications to Brazil and India in the 1980s. Journal of Development Economics 38 (2), 275–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Datt, G. and Ravallion, M. (1998) Farm Productivity and Rural Poverty in India. Journal of Development Studies 34, 62–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Ferranti, D., Perry, G., Ferreira, F.H.G. and Walton, M. (2004) Inequality in Latin America?: Breaking with History? Washington, DC: The World Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delgado, G and Cardoso, J.C. Jr. (2000) A Universalização de Direitos Sociais no Brasil: a Previdência Rural nos Anos 90. Brasília: IPEA.Google Scholar
DiNardo, J., Fortin, N. and Lemieux, T. (1996) Labor market institutions and the distribution of wages, 1973–1992: A semi-parametric approach. Econometrica 64 (5), 1001–1044.Google Scholar
Easterly, W. and Fischer, S. (2001) Inflation and the Poor. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 33 (2), 160–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellery, R. Jr., and Ferreira, P.C. (1994) Crescimento Econômico e Convergência entre as Rendas dos Estados Brasileiros. Anais do XVIôEncontro Brasileiro de Econometria (SBE), 264–286.Google Scholar
Fava, V.L. (1984) Urbanização, Custo de Vida e Pobreza no Brasil. Mimeo, Instituto de Pesquisa Economica Aplicada (Rio de Janeiro)/University of São Paulo.Google Scholar
Ferreira, A. (2000) Convergence in Brazil: Recent trends and long-run prospects. Applied Economics 32, 479–489.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferreira, F.H.G. and Lanjouw, P. (2001) Rural Nonfarm Activities and Poverty in the Brazilian Northeast. World Development 29 (3), 509–528.Google Scholar
Ferreira, F.H.G., Lanjouw, P. and Neri, M.C. (2003) A robust poverty profile for Brazil using multiple data sources. Revista Brasileira de Economia 57 (1), 59–92.Google Scholar
Ferreira, F.H.G. and Litchfield, J.A. (2000) Desigualdade, pobreza e bem-estar social no Brasil: 1981/95. In Henriques, R. (ed.), Desigualdade e Pobreza no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: IPEA.Google Scholar
Ferreira, F.H.G. and Litchfield, J.A. (2001) Education or inflation?: The micro and macroeconomics of the Brazilian income distribution during 1981–1995. Cuadernos de Economía 38 (141), 209–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferreira, F.H.G. and Paes de Barros, R. (1999) The slippery slope: Explaining the increase in extreme poverty in urban Brazil, 1976–1996. Brazilian Review of Econometrics 19 (2), 211–296.Google Scholar
Foster, J., Greer, J. and Thorbecke, E. (1984) A class of decomposable poverty measures. Econometrica 52, 761–765.Google Scholar
Hoffman, R. (1989) Evolução da distribuição da renda no Brasil, entre pessoas e entre famílias, 1979/86. In Sedlacek, G.L. and de Barros, R.P. (eds.), Mercado de Trabalho e Distribuição de Renda: Uma Coletânea. Rio de Janeiro: IPEA, Série Monográfica No. 35.Google Scholar
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) (1993) Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios: Síntese de Indicadores da Pesquisa Básica—1990. Rio de Janeiro: IBGE.Google Scholar
Jenkins, S.P. (1995) Accounting for inequality trends: Decomposition analyses for the UK, 1971—86._Economica 62, 29–63.Google Scholar
Lara Resende, A., Funaro, D., Sayad, J., Belluzzo, L.G., Arida, P. and Solnik, A. (1987) Por Que Não Deu Certo. São Paulo: L&PM Editores.Google Scholar
Leme, M.C.S. and Wajnman, S. (2001) Diferenciais de rendimento por gênero. In Lisboa, M.B. and Menezes-Filho, N.A. (eds.), Microeconomia e Sociedade no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Contra-Capa Livraria.Google Scholar
Litchfield, J.A. (2001) Welfare and Income Distribution in Brazil, 1981–1995. Ph.D. Dissertation, London School of Economics.Google Scholar
Mookherjee, D. and Shorrocks, A. (1982) A decomposition analysis of the trend in UK income inequality. Economic Journal 92, 886–902.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neri, M. (1995) Sobre a mensuração dos salários reais em alta inflação. Pesquisa e Planejamento Econômico 25 (3), 497–525.Google Scholar
Ramos, L. (1993) A Distribuição de Rendimentos no Brasil: 1976/85. IPEA: Rio de Janeiro.Google Scholar
Rocha, S. (1993) Poverty Lines for Brazil: New Estimates from Recent Empirical Evidence. Mimeo, IPEA, Rio de Janeiro.Google Scholar
Romer, C.D. and Romer, D.H. (1999) Monetary policy and the well-being of the poor. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Review, First Quarter, 21–49.Google Scholar
Shorrocks, A.F. (1980) The class of additively decomposable inequality measures. Econometrica 48, 613–625.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shorrocks, A.F. (1982) Inequality decomposition by factor components. Econometrica 50 (1), 193–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shorrocks, A.F. (1984) Inequality decomposition by population subgroup. Econometrica 52, 1369–1385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanner, C. (1987) Malnutrition and the development of rural households in the Agreste of Paraíba state, north-east Brazil. Journal of Development Studies 23, 2.Google Scholar
Urani, A. (1993) Inflação e Desemprego como Determinantes do Nível e da Distribuição da Renda do Trabalho no Brasil Metropolitano; 1982–1992. IPEA Série Seminários no. 04/93, Rio de Janeiro.Google Scholar
World Bank (2005) World Development Report 2006: Equity and Development. Washington, DC: The World Bank and Oxford University Press.Google Scholar