Economic growth and income concentration and their effects on poverty in Brazil

We use panel data for Brazilian states from 1995 to 2009 to analyse the impact of economic growth and income inequality on poverty change in Brazil, seeking to evaluate the Bourguignon (2003) hypothesis that the more unequal a country is, the less effective economic growth will be at reducing poverty. To this end, we estimate poverty elasticities relative to income and inequality, specifying two dynamic econometric models estimated via the generalized method of moments (GMM) system developed by Arellano and Bond (1991), Arellano and Bover (1995) and Blundell and Bond (1998). The model-estimated results prompt the conclusion that the income growth effect on poverty reduction is smaller when the initial development level is low. The same is found when the initial inequality level is high. Therefore, regions with a low initial development level, high initial inequality or both present less favourable conditions for reducing poverty through income growth

Crecimiento económico y concentración del ingreso: sus efectos en la pobreza del Brasil

Para analizar los efectos del crecimiento económico y la desigualdad de los ingresos en la pobreza del Brasil se utilizan datos de panel para los estados brasileños de 1995 a 2009 y se evalúa la hipótesis de Bourguignon (2003) de que a mayor desigualdad en un país, menos eficaz resultará el crecimiento económico para reducir la pobreza. Estimamos las elasticidades pobreza-ingreso y pobrezadesigualdad mediante dos modelos econométricos dinámicos basados en el método generalizado de momentos de Arellano y Bond (1991), Arellano y Bover (1995) y Blundell y Bond (1998). Se concluye que a menor desarrollo inicial y mayor nivel de desigualdad inicial, menor incidencia tiene el aumento de los ingresos en la reducción de la pobreza. Las regiones con un nivel de desarrollo inicial limitado, una elevada desigualdad inicial, o ambos, presentan condiciones menos favorables para reducir la pobreza mediante el aumento del ingreso

A decomposition analysis for socioeconomic inequalities in health status associated with the COVID-19 diagnosis and related symptoms during Brazil's first wave of infections

Recent studies have shown that COVID-19 affects different population groups asymmetrically. This work uses data from the National Survey of Households-PNAD COVID-19/IBGE-to quantify the socioeconomic inequality in health during the first wave of COVID-19 infections in Brazil. We use the concentration curve, the concentration index, and a decomposition analysis to verify the factors that most influence the inequalities in the specified health variables. We find a positive concentration index for the incidence rate, indicating a greater concentration of diagnoses (number of tests) among groups with higher income levels. When considering symptoms similar to a COVID-19 infection, inequality practically disappears. Among people with higher income, a pre-existing disease has a more significant contribution to the concentration of COVID-19 in the presence of correlated symptoms than in its diagnosis. Tests of dominance support the findings. Moreover, the decomposition results show that if the inequalities were explained only by race (non-white) and place of living (North and Northeast), there would be a concentration of COVID-19 among the poorest