University of Sussex
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

Education or Inflation? The Micro and Macroeconomics of the Brazilian Income Distribution during 1981-1995

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 23:21 authored by Francisco Ferreira, Julie LitchfieldJulie Litchfield
This paper investigates the increases in inequality observed in Brazil during the 1980s, as well as the declines in the first half of the 1990s. It also documents the more cyclical trends in poverty during the same period. Using static decompositions of inequality by household characteristics, it quantifies the importance of education, race, geographic location and demographic structure of the household as determinants of inequality levels. Decomposing inequality by factor components reveals that almost half of overall inequality is due to the distribution of self-employment incomes. The causes of changes in inequality differ across the two decades. The rise in inequality in the 1980s appears to have been driven by increases in the educational attainment of the population, in a context of highly convex returns, and by high and accelerating inflation. In the 1990s, the fall in inequality was associated with increasing equality between urban and rural areas, declining returns to education, and falling inflation. Poverty dynamics were closely associated with real wage levels.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Cuadernos de Economia

ISSN

0717-6821

Publisher

Instituto de Economía, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Issue

114

Volume

38

Page range

209-238

Department affiliated with

  • Economics Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Editors

A Valdes, N Hicks

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC