Education and income distribution in urban Brazil, 1976-1996 / Francisco H.G. Ferreira and Ricardo Paes de Barros.

Format:

Book

Government document

Author/Creator:

Ferreira, Francisco H. G., author.

Contributor:

Barros, Ricardo Paes de, 1954-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic and Social Development.

Brazil.

Local Subjects:

Economic and Social Development.

Brazil.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (21 pages)

Contained In:

CEPAL Review Vol. 2000, no. 71, p. 41-61 2000:71<41 16840348

Place of Publication:

New York : United Nations, 2000.

System Details:

data file

Summary:

Despite tremendous macroeconomic instability, Brazil's urban income distributions in 1976 and 1996 appear, at first glance, deceptively similar. Mean household income per capita was stagnant, with a minute accumulated growth of 4.3% over the two decades. The Gini coefficient hovered just above 0.59 in both years, and the incidence of poverty (with respect to a poverty line of R$60/month at 1996 prices) was effectively unchanged at 22%. Yet, behind this apparent stability, a powerful combination of labour market, demographic and educational dynamics were at work, one effect of which was to generate a substantial increase in extreme urban poverty. Using a micro-simulation-based decomposition methodology which endogenizes labour incomes, individual occupational choices and education decisions, we show that the distribution of incomes was being affected, on the one hand, by a decline in average returns to both education and experience and by impoverishing changes in the structure of occupations and labour force participation (all of which tended to increase poverty), and on the other hand by an increase in educational endowments across the distribution and a progressive reduction in dependency ratios (both of which tended to reduce poverty).

Notes:

Title from title screen (viewed May 1, 2017).

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.