Disposable income inequality in Brazil: analysis from Gini Index decompositions using PNAD's database (2012-2019).
Inequality, Decomposition, Income, Social, Regional.
The present work aims to analyze income inequality evolution and its decompositions for Brazil, between 2012 and 2019. Based on information gathered from Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios Contínua (PNAD-C), and assessing income inequality in its distinct sources: income from work, retirements and pensions income, income from social protection and other sources; and, also, by dividing the population in subgroups. The analyzed cuts are: home situation (rural/urban) and macrorregional. This work uses two distinct Gini decomposition methods: 1) Bhattacharya e Mahalanobis (1967), which allows for Gini decomposition in case of crossing Lorenz curves; and 2) Zenga (2013) and Zenga and Valli (2018), that makes a cross decomposition possible between subgroups and sources. The objective is to present an assessment of income inequality behaviour based on changes that happened through cyclic economic oscillation of Brazilian economy in these times. It is argued that analyzing the contribution to the income inequality of each source and each subgroup, and also for their combined effect, contributes not only to a more general discussion of the country's inequality, but also strengthens the base for a more precise diagnosis of Brazilian problems and challenges while facing this phenomenon, under the optics of public policy.