Dinâmica de Rendimentos, Persistência da Pobreza e Políticas Sociais em Portugal

This paper aims to investigate income and poverty dynamics in Portugal, with a special focus on chronic poverty. The analysis of income distribution changes in a representative panel of households in Portugal allow us to understand prevailing income mobility patterns as well as quantify and qualify chronic poverty incidence. The paper develops and applies several income mobility measures in addition to standard poverty rates and flows, and poverty spells. It proceeds with the identification of the driving forces of inequality and poverty, and especially of the persistence of poverty after social transfers. Finally, it discusses some implications for social policy. The study is conducted mainly by using microdata on Portugal from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), covering the period from 1994 to 1997. Complementary secondary analysis on data on Portugal and the EU 15 is used in order to present some comparative analysis.