DP 0271 - A Century of regional inequalities in Brazil

Abstract

This work calculates coefficients of spatial inequalities of wealth amongst Brazilian municipalities, for each year for the period from 1920 to 2016, states of the federation, from 1939 to 2017, and amongst municipalities from each of the five Brazilians’ macro-regions, from 1920 to 2016. The use of non-parametric statistics reveals rough short-term paths of inequalities, and the occurrence of U-shaped relationships between spatial inequalities and the level of per capita GDP, known as the Williamson’s Curve (1965). Decomposition of the changes in the Gini coefficients show intense rank turbulence and leapfrogging over richer municipalities, from 1920 to 1970. Although the coefficients confirmed a long-term convergence trend in spatial inequalities, since 1970, there have been significant differences between macro-regional spatial inequalities dynamics, and a worrying switch to divergence in the Southeast, since in 1996.