Keywords
Family arrangements
Income inequality
Covid-19
Brazil
How to Cite
Abstract
This study explores the role of changes in family arrangements on the distribution of income in Brazil, using microdata from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNADC) for the period from 2012 to 2023. Family arrangements are classified into five groups: couples with children, childless couples, lone mothers, lone person and other family arrangements. Modest but relevant trends are observed, such as a decrease in couples with children and an increase in lone persons and childless couples. Recent declines in income inequality are noted, particularly pronounced in 2020, due to general impoverishment intensified by the pandemic. Finally, quantile regression results suggest statistically significant asymmetries among percentiles across the income distribution in all family arrangements and results from the Theil index decomposition indicate that “within-group” disparities are more relevant in the distribution of family income, although the weight of “between-group” inequality has been increasing since 2019.
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