Using the tools of Welfare Economics, the study estimates states' weights in the social welfare function of contemporary Brazil. Based on PNAD 2009 microdata, two methods of calculating the weights were applied: the Equally Distributed Equivalent Income (EDEI) and the average marginal utilities...

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...

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the origins of a critical process in the North American economy before the subprime crisis, namely, the increasing debt of households. It is argued that causes of this indebtedness are alterations in income distribution (an increased concentration of...

This paper deals with the distributional aspects of Brazilian Civil Servant Pension System. It analyzes, in a counter factual way, the potential implications after the constitution of supplemental retirement pension fund for civil servants, at the light of what is predicted in the 41st...

This paper details the characterization of metropolis capitals and their peripheral municipalities using recent data made available by Brazilian Statistical Foundation (IBGE). The text also investigates the distribution of revenue among municipalities and their financial availability to provide...

Using a factor decomposition of the Gini coefficient we measure the contribution to inequality of direct monetary transfers to and from the Brazilian State. Among the transfers from the State are wages of public workers, pensions and social assistance; the transfers to the State are direct taxes....

This paper examines the effects of regional inequalities on the interpersonal distribution of household per capita income in Brazil, the United States and Mexico. Five hypotheses are tested through nested decompositions of the GE(0) inequality index applied to Census microdata for all three...

This article collects data from 1,521 individuals living in the Distrito Federal (Brazil) in the period August/2009 to October/2009. The survey interviews individuals about their socio economic characteristics, happiness status and sexual activity. After that a multinomial logit model is...

This study is part of Brasil 2035 a project whose objective is to provide subsidies to formulate long-term strategies for Brazil through Prospective Scenarios. The present text uses the prospective methodology, in order to present tendencies and uncertainties for public security. The article is...

We examine how inequality measures, data sources, income brackets, ranking variables of tabulated tax data, underestimation of incomes in the bottom of the distribution and the methodology used to correct inequality affects the trends of inequality in total income among adults in Brazil between...