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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/70724
Description
Title
Income Distribution and Poverty in Brazil
Author(s)
Romao, Mauricio Eliseu Costa
Issue Date
1982
Department of Study
Economics
Discipline
Economics
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Economics, General
Abstract
There is the urgent necessity of designing a new strategy that counteracts the prevailing tendency toward greater inequality in distribution and massive poverty in Brazil. Within this line of thought, a fundamental redirection of development strategy would emphasize changing poverty and inequality as the principal indicators of development. In the extent to which poverty and inequality are by far the most pressing problems in Brazil and in other countries and merit the greatest prominence, this alternative approach is called for. It requires a profound change of philosophy, attitude, and disposition, followed by a package of complementary and supportive policies which would promote structural changes in the distribution of assets, income and power. Such a broad reorganization of the society would involve going beyond mere economic aspects. It would require affecting social, cultural, institutional and political structures.
The present study adopts this new attitude by addressing three problems: first, it approaches the distribution issue from the classical school point of view and extends the post-Keynesian model of income distribution so as to allow manifestations of poverty to be investigated. Second, it goes much deeper into the size-distribution aspect in Brazil by employing a disaggregation of the inequality measure as well as analyzing some demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the Brazilian families. Finally, it approaches the poverty phenomenon from an absolute perspective and employs a promising new index of absolute dispossession.
The characteristics associated with inequality and widespread poverty in our analysis, when taken together, indicate that varying degrees of consumption (expenditure) shortfalls among families are essentially due to low levels of schooling, low-paid occupation, and large family size.
To direct anti-poverty measures, the focus should be on backward regions within the country. It is particularly urgent to devise a program for minimizing the extent, incidence, and intensity of absolute poverty where it appears as a disease: the Northeast. Therefore, there is absolutely no legitimate reason for the continuation of a policy which does not differentiate qualitively among regions.
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