The stability of income inequality in Brazil between 2006 and 2012: Additional results

Abstract

We examine how inequality measures, data sources, income brackets, ranking variables of tabulated tax data, underestimation of incomes in the bottom of the distribution and the methodology used to correct inequality affects the trends of inequality in total income among adults in Brasil between 2006 and 2012. The existing evidence corroborates the hypothesis that inequaliy has remained stable. Different data and methods lead to converging results: level higher than that measured using household surveys, stability and large importance of the rich to explain inequality trends between 2006 and 2012.