This One Pager presents simulations for the future of non-contributory transfers in Brazil, discussing the dilemmas of various designs and estimating costs and possible impacts on poverty and inequality. The authors also analyse a series of operational and budget-related challenges to...

This paper uses income tax tabulations to estimate top income shares in Brazil over the long term. Between 1926 and 2015, the concentration of income at the top remained very high, following a sine wave trend: top shares ebbed and flowed over time, frequently in tandem with political and...

The evaluation of a tax system - that is, the set of legal rules that governs the exercise of authoritative rule by various government entities in the form of tax collection in the country - is notoriously controversial in Brazil, as elsewhere. The tax system plays a central role in a modern...

This paper analyses the changes in orientation and composition of Brazilian fiscal policy, focusing on three recent periods and seeking to explore their relationship with economic performance. The first period (2005-2010) was characterised by fiscal expansion, with public investment and...

A majority of people living in rural areas depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Investing in smallholder farming can be a sustainable way to revitalise agricultural production based on local and diverse food systems. Inclusive agricultural growth has the potential to reduce rural...

This paper presents a critical analysis of income and profit taxes in Brazil, demonstrating how measures adopted in the 1980s and 1990s, as a result of mainstream recommendations, hindered the redistributive role of taxes in the country. Investigation of tax data reveals a high degree of income...

The goal of this study is to evaluate the fiscal condition of the Brazilian public sector, focusing on the situation of state governments in the North and Northeast regions of the country and on international financing for rural development. The paper comprises six sections, including this...

Since the mid-1990s, Brazil has undergone extensive reforms that have finally reversed the dismaying economic performance of the 1980s. In particular, poverty and inequality indicators have improved dramatically, especially since the late-2000s. This paper provides an overview of such recent...

The objective of this paper is to propose a universal child grant for Brazil. We will discuss the rationality behind the proposal, how best to design it, its initial operational set-up,its costs, and some of its distributive aspects. The proposed allowance is based on the unification of the...