Desigualdade da distribuição da renda no Brasil: a contribuição de aposentadorias e pensões e de outras parcelas do rendimento domiciliar per capita

Inequality of income distribution in Brazil: the contribution of pensions and of other components of per capita household income - The paper starts with a discussion of methodological problems that arise when measuring whether a component of total income is progressive or regressive, v.g., whether such component contributes to reduce or to increase the inequality of the income distribution. Next, it examines the data of the last National Sample Survey of Households of Brazil (PNAD, 2007), to update the analysis of the distribution of per capita household income in Brazil and verify how income from work (of the military and civil servants, of other employees, of self-employed and of employers), from pensions, from rents and from other components of income influence income inequality in Brazil. Finally, it examines how each of these components contributed to reduce the Gini index of the distribution of per capita household income in Brazil in the period 2001-2007. It becomes evident that about 50% of such reduction in the Gini index is associated with changes in the income component ?wages in the private sector?. Another conclusion is that the pensions provided by the official system are regressive, even though changes in the income from pensions in the last years have contributed to the reduction of the Gini index.