97 research outputs found
Rising food prices and household welfare: Evidence from Brazil in 2008
No full textFood price inflation in Brazil in the twelve months to June 2008 was 18 percent, while overall inflation was 5.3 percent. This paper uses spatially disaggregated monthly data on consumer prices and two different household surveys to estimate the welfare consequences of these food price increases, and their distribution across households. Because Brazil is a large food producer, with a predominantly wage-earning agricultural labor force, our estimates include general equilibrium effects on market and transfer incomes, as well as the standard estimates of changes in consumer surplus. While the expenditure (or consumer surplus) effects were large, negative and markedly regressive everywhere, the market income effect was positive and progressive, particularly in rural areas. Because of this effect on the rural poor, and of the partial protection afforded by increases in two large social assistance benefits, the overall impact of higher food prices in Brazil was U-shaped, with the middle-income groups suffering larger proportional losses than the very poor. Nevertheless, since Brazil is 80 percent urban, higher food prices still led to a greater incidence and depth of poverty at the national level.Food prices, welfare, poverty, inequality, price change incidence curve, Brazil.
Rising food prices and household welfare : evidence from Brazil in 2008
No full textFood price inflation in Brazil in the twelve months to June 2008 was 18 percent, while overall inflation was seven percent. Using spatially disaggregated monthly data on consumer prices and two different household surveys, we estimate the welfare consequences of these food price increases, and their distribution across households. Because Brazil is a large food producer, with a predominantly wage-earning agricultural labor force, our estimates include general equilibrium effects on market and transfer incomes, as well as the standard estimates of changes in consumer surplus. While the expenditure (or consumer surplus) effects were large, negative and markedly regressive everywhere, the market income effect was positive and progressive, particularly in rural areas. Because of this effect on the rural poor, and of the partial protection afforded by increases in two large social assistance benefits, the overall impact of higher food prices in Brazil was U-shaped, with middle-income groups suffering larger proportional losses than the very poor. Nevertheless, since Brazil is 80 percent urban, higher food prices still led to a greater incidence and depth of poverty at the national level.Rural Poverty Reduction,Markets and Market Access,Food&Beverage Industry,Regional Economic Development
Trade Liberalization, Employment Flows and Wage Inequality in Brazil
No full textUsing nationally representative, economy-wide data, this paper investigates the relative importance of trade-mandated effects on industry wage premiums; industry and economy-wide skill premiums; and employment flows in accounting for changes in the wage distribution in Brazil during the 1988-95 trade liberalization. Unlike in other Latin American countries, trade liberalization appears to have made a significant contribution towards a reduction in wage inequality. These effects have not occurred through changes in industry-specific (wage or skill) premiums. Instead, they appear to have been channelled through substantial employment flows across sectors and formality categories. Changes in the economy-wide skill premium are also important.trade liberalization, inequality, employment flows, Brazil
Trade liberalization, employment flows, and wage inequality in Brazil
No full textUsing nationally representative, economywide data, this paper investigates the relative importance of trade-mandated effects on industry wage premia; industry and economywide skill premia; and employment flows in accounting for changes in the wage distribution in Brazil during the 1988-95 trade liberalization. Unlike in other Latin American countries, trade liberalization appears to have made a significant contribution toward a reduction in wage inequality. These effects have not occurred through changes in industry-specific (wage or skill) premia. Instead, they appear to have been channeled through substantial employment flows across sectors and formality categories. Changes in the economywide skill premium are also important.Economic Theory&Research,Free Trade,Labor Markets,Trade Policy,Trade Law
Educational expansion and income distribution. A Micro-Simulation for Ceará
No full textDoes more education really mean less poverty and less inequality? How much less? What are the transmission mechanisms? This paper presents the results of a micro-simulation exercise for the Brazilian State of Ceará, which suggests that broad-based policies aimed at increasing educational attainment would have substantial impacts on poverty reduction, but muted effects on inequality. These results are highly dependent on assumptions about the behaviour of returns to education, both for the distribution of earnings and for the distribution of household income per capita. A large share of the poverty reducing effect of more education operates through greater incentives for labour force participation among the poor, and through reductions in fertility. Both of these effects function largely through decisions made by poor women.education, poverty, inequality
Race discrimination or inequality of opportunities: the Brazilian case
No full textFollowing the topics discussed by Campante et al (2004), this paper contributes to the literature of the Brazilian racial discrimination by isolating the effect of intergeneration transmission of schooling and the school's quality in the race discrimination effect. Instead of modelling just one mincer-type equation like others papers, it was decided to use the Two Stage Least Square Model where the first step of modelling control the endogeneity of individual schooling instrumenting it by family background and ability tests while attending school. The paper also provide a comparative profile of urban racial discrimination in the Northeast and the Southeast recognizing the important differences across regions in Brazil both in terms of economic development and racial composition of the population. As found by Campante et al (2004), results reveal that part of the component of wage differentials ordinarily attributed to labor market discrimination is actually explained by persistent educational inequalities between races. However because they didn't control the potential bias due to the endogeneity of some variables, their discrimination effect is 15 to 19 percentage points higher than it should be. The mechanism of intergeneration transmission is correlated with financial constraints and higher education of parents because blacks have lower elasticities of education with respect to parent's education due to selection and causation. Even controlling the model using instruments, Private sector remains as the sector where race discrimination is really an issue. Moreover, the regional profile suggests that the labor market is a more important locus of the racial issue in the Southeast than in the Northeast, although the significant presence in both regions. However, we are not controlling for selection bias and consequently the results must be viewed with caution because it is not sure how precise the estimations are
"Meeting the Millennium Development Goals in Brazil: Can Microeconomic Simulations Help?"
No full textThe authors investigate whether micro-simulation techniques can shed light on the types of policies that should be adopted by countries wishing to meet their Millennium Development Goals. They compare two families of micro-simulations. The first family of micro-simulations decomposes required poverty changes into a change in the mean and a reduction in inequality. Although it highlights the importance of inequality reduction, it appears to be too general to be of much use for policymaking. The second family of micro-simulations is based on a richer model of behavior in the labor markets.It points to the importance of combining different policy options, such as educational expansion and targeted conditional redistribution schemes, to ensure that the poorest people in society are successfully reached. But the absence of market equilibria in these statistical models, as well as the strong stability assumptions which are implicit in their use, argue for extreme caution in their interpretation.microsimulation techniques, Millenium Development Goals, Brazil
The Effects of Expanding Education on the Distribution of Income in Cear.
No full texteducation, poverty, inequality
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