Economic Development and Inequalities in Brazil: 1960–2010

Abstract

The chapter examines social inequalities in Brazil from the perspective of changes in productive and occupational structures and their relationship to economic development. A brief theoretical discussion drawing upon the “Kuznets curve” debate is followed by an analysis of censuses data from 1960 to 2010, focusing on how rural-urban transition shaped the actual socio-occupational stratification. The role of two key factors is highlighted in the analysis: the high levels of concentration in land ownership and the import substitution industrialization model. The role of education in shaping inequalities is examined indirectly through the evolution of the educational profile of the workforce, with an emphasis on its effects on the rural population and nonwhite racial groups. One section specifically addresses the rise of occupation polarization among women as they massively joined the labor market. Lastly, the chapter analyzes inequalities through the lens of labor and welfare rights. Although the overall trends found along this study converge with the Kuznets thesis, the trend toward less income inequality in Brazil is much weaker than that observed among developed countries; as a matter of conclusion, it is argued that the main obstacles to the decline in inequality in Brazil are to be found in political rather than economic processes.