Meeting the millennium poverty reduction targets in Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Education and income distribution in urban Brazil, 1976-1996

Includes bibliography

The structural heterogeneity of family farming in Brazil

Includes bibliography.

Determinants of unfair inequality in Brazil, 1995 and 2009

This article analyses the trend of unfair inequality in Brazil (1995-2009) using a nonparametric approach to estimate the income function. The entropy metrics introduced by Li, Maasoumi and Racine (2009) are used to quantify income differences separately for each effort variable. A Gini coefficient of unfair inequality is calculated, based on the fitted values of the non-parametric estimation; and the robustness of the estimations, including circumstantial variables, is analysed. The trend of the entropies demonstrated a reduction in the income differential caused by education. The variables “hours worked” and “labour-market status” contribute significantly to explaining wage differences imputed to individual effort; but the migratory variable had little explanatory power. Lastly, the robustness analysis demonstrated the plausibility of the results obtained at each stage of the empirical work.

The redistributive potential of taxation in Latin America

This study uses internationally comparable methodologies to analyse the distributional impact of income tax and public transfers in 17 countries of Latin America. The results indicate that fiscal policy plays a limited role in improving the distribution of disposable income; the Gini coefficient decreased by barely three percentage points after direct fiscal action. On average, 61% of this reduction was due to public cash transfers and the rest to direct taxes, reflecting the pressing need for personal income tax to be strengthened. Analysis of household surveys gives an indication of the potential effects of tax reforms aimed at increasing the average effective tax rate of the top income decile. Allocating this additional revenue to targeted transfers would produce significant results. Consequently, tax reforms must be evaluated bearing in mind how those resources are used.

L'objetif du millénaire de réduire la pauvreté en Amérique latine et dans les Caraïbes

Inclut la bibliographie

Descomposición del coeficiente de Gini por fuentes de ingreso: evidencia empírica para América Latina 1999-2005

Incluye Bibliografía

Consideraciones sobre el índice de Gini para medir la concentración del ingreso

Incluye Bibliografía

Aplicación del índice de concentración de Gini en el análisis de la distribución de ciudades

Incluye Bibliografía

Consideraciones sobre el índice de Gini para medir la concentración del ingreso

Incluye Bibliografía