Historical perspective on income distribution in Latin America

This article seeks to understand the recent process of reduction of poverty and economic inequality in the main countries of Latin America in the 2000s. The study draws attention to two specificities of the region: at the same time that it gathers the most unequal countries in the world, the region...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor: Mattos, Fernando Augusto Mansor de
Tipo de documento: artigo
Estado:Versão publicada
Data de publicação:2019
País:Brasil
Recursos:Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp)
Repositório:Revista Brasileira de Economia Social e do Trabalho
Idioma:português
OAI Identifier:oai:inpec.econtents.bc.unicamp.br:article/12658
Acesso em linha:https://econtents.bc.unicamp.br/inpec/index.php/rbest/article/view/12658
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Latin America
Economic inequality
Income distribution.
Amérique Latine
Inégalité économique
Répartition des revenus.
América Latina
Desigualdade econômica
Distribuição de renda.
Desigualdad económica
Distribución del ingreso.
Descrição
Resumo:This article seeks to understand the recent process of reduction of poverty and economic inequality in the main countries of Latin America in the 2000s. The study draws attention to two specificities of the region: at the same time that it gathers the most unequal countries in the world, the region also concentrates the few nations that were able to achieve a decrease in income inequality in the 2000s. The article is divided into four sections, which highlight the specificities of the countries of the region regarding the issue of income distribution, in an international comparison. The following sections discuss historical/structural and institutional aspects that explain the continent's high inequality and also allow us to understand the nature of the reversal of poverty and inequality indicators from 2014 on, when the commodity boom showed signs of exhaustion. The conclusions highlight the necessity of maintaining policies that lead to economic growth, and that they should be accompanied by public policies to face the problem of income inequality and poverty.