The following study uses two approaches to judge whether inequality in Brazil is falling fast enough. The first is to compare the variation of the Gini coefficient in Brazil with what was observed in several countries that today belong to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and...

The objective of this text is to compare various approaches to defining poverty lines. The Cost of Basic Needs approach has been the most widely used method in Brazil and Latin America, there are various alternatives. In addition to the Cost of Basic Needs and Food Energy Intake methods, the...

This text proposes a methodology for classifying the demographic bonus in education into relative and absolute components. According to this definition, a relative demographic bonus means that school age-population is increasing more slowly than total population, making more resources available,...

The objective of this discussion paper is to estimate the impact that changes in the value of the minimum wage will have upon the distribution of individual labor income. Two complementary approaches will be used. The first approach is to use non parametric estimators to estimate the individual...

This discussion paper presents a methodology to visualize the effects of various influences on the income distribution. The methodology, although not new, has become very popular in the past few years. It is the method of counterfactual simulations. In other words, it is the use of "what if …"...

This text decomposes the earnings differential between white men, on the one hand, and black men, white women, and black women, on the other. A difference in earnings may arise due to at least three causes: difference in human capital, different insertions in the labor market, or pure difference...

This text argues that the criteria used to define Bolsa Família benefits and the criteria used to establish coverage targets are inconsistent. While individual concession criteria are that beneficiaries should be paid for two years if they do not suffer large upward income mobility, the...

This article estimates the market value of public education by comparing standardized test scores of students in public and private schools. The idea is to assign to the education of each public school student a market value equivalent to the tuition paid by private school students with similar...