This paper aims to describe the ongoing process of regional convergence among Brazilian metropolitan areas and the rest of the country, examining its main reasons and highlighting its importance to the overall decline in income inequality. Our analysis shows that, since the early 1980's, per...

This text investigates, for 2004 and 2009, the characteristics and living conditions of four demographic categories defined by household per capita income values. These are the extreme poor (those whose per capita incomes were less than R$ 67 in 2009), the poor (between R$ 67 and R$ 134), the...

In this text we address measurement, monitoring and cost issues relating to the eradication of extreme poverty in Brazil. We argue that, for the purpose of ending extreme poverty, income poverty is the relevant concept, and that an administrative extreme poverty line, decided upon politically,...

This article examines definitions, characteristics of the survey process, special cases such as incest and polygamy and the consistency of data on household arrangements collected by the Brazilian National Household Surveys (PNAD) between 1992 and 1999. The main conclusion is that PNAD’s data...