Inequality in Brazil: the contribution of pensions

State Transfers, Taxes and Income Inequality in Brazil

“…High levels of regressiveness are characteristic of the pension system of several Latin American countries (ARZA, 2008;ESQUIVEL, 2011;FERREIRA, 2006;HOFFMANN, 2003aHOFFMANN, , 2003bLAVADO, 2007;SOUZA, 2013, 2014;RANGEL, 2011;RANGEL, VAZ and FERREIRA, 2009;SILVEIRA, 2008SILVEIRA, , 2010SOARES et al, 2009). However, the disaggregation between public pensions for workers in the private sector and for those in the public sector shows that the system is heterogeneous.…”

“…ii) social security pensions are regressive, especially due to the high concentration of benefits within the system that covers workers in the public sector-in the long run-and considering contributions, this regressiveness is reduced (AFONSO and FERNANDES, 2005;BARROS et al, 2007;FERREIRA, 2006;HOFFMANN, 2003aHOFFMANN, , 2003bHOFFMANN, , 2009MEDEIROS and SOUZA, 2014;RANGEL, VAZ and FERREIRA, 2009;SILVEIRA, 2008SILVEIRA, , 2010; iii) social assistance benefits are very progressive, but contribute little to total inequality given their small share in total income (BARROS et al, 2007;HOFFMANN, 2009;MEDEIROS and SOUZA, 2013;ROCHA, 2008;SOARES et al, 2009); iv) wages paid to public servants have a very unequal distribution, are often higher than those paid in the private sector and tend to be regressive (BARBOSA and SOUZA, 2012;DARÉ, 2011;DARÉ and HOFFMANN, 2012;HOFFMANN, 2009;SOUZA and MEDEIROS, 2013;VAZ and HOFFMANN, 2007). …”

The Rich, the Affluent and the Top Incomes: A Literature Review

“…Pensions, public or private, may be particularly important in lower income countries, where the composition of incomes differs from that of developed economies. They are extremely concentrated at the top of the distribution in Mexico (Esquivel, 2011), Chile and Brazil (Hoffmann, 2003;Soares, Osorio, Soares, Medeiros, & Zepeda, 2009) and somewhat concentrated in other countries with high income-replacement ratios (Brown & Prus, 2006;Goudswaard & Caminada, 2010;Palme, 2006). However, very little has been written about the role of pensions in the income of the rich.…”

Desigualdade da distribuição da renda no Brasil: a contribuição de aposentadorias e pensões e de outras parcelas do rendimento domiciliar per capita

“…Analisando os dados do Censo Demográfico de 2000, verifica-se que são registrados rendimentos extremamente elevados, que não são captados na PNAD, e que a razão de concentração de aposentadorias e pensões fica abaixo do índice de Gini, indicando que essa parcela do RDPC é progressiva (Hoffmann;Ney, 2008). Mas, conforme os dados do Censo Demográfico de 2000, a razão de concentração de aposentadorias e pensões é substancialmente maior do que a razão de concentração dos salários (rendimento do trabalho de empregados), de maneira análoga ao que se observa na Tabela 3, indicando que a distribuição dos rendimentos previdenciários está reforçando a desigualdade existente no país.…”