Testando a Propriedade Redistributiva do Sistema Previdenciário Brasileiro: Uma Abordagem Semiparamétrica

It is consensual that the increasing on the Social Security?s deficit is one of the most important constraints imposed upon sustained economic growth in Brazil. Many proposals have been discussed, from adjustments on the age of retirement, equalizing men and women, to a complete reform, by substituting the PAYG system for a capitalization one. In this debate, income transfers are frequently presented as one of the main reasons for the existence of Social Security Systems. Under this approach, we analyze the Brazilian case. From Pnad data, we tested the system?s income distribution capability. The results lead us to the conclusion that the Brazilian Social Security System has a regressive distribution. This characteristic is glimpsed, mainly, through the inequality indicators (Gini and Theil): the Brazilian Social Security gets to explain more than 60% of total variation of those indexes for men older than 18. For women, though, we cannot state that the system is progressive. The results indicate that, although reducing the poverty level, it doesn`t possess the property of redistributing income for the poorest.