A queda da pobreza e da concentração de renda no Brasil. “À la recherche” da teoria perdida

Abstract

In the past 20 years, poverty and inequality indicators in Brazil recorded a robust decay, not reverted by adverse circumstances, varying only in the velocity of these gains. Empirical researches focus their attention on accounting for the parameters that would have made these changes possibles, finding variables that go from demographic transition, through conditional income transference programs (Bolsa-Família) to a crucial arena: labor market performance (formalization, schooling, minimum wage, etc.). In this paper, we concentrate on the labor market, trying to call attention to the lack of theoretical reference in the performed exercises. This lack of analytical references is apparent in the choice of variables that are part of the competing theoretical models. The absence of conceptual anchors generates doubts about the origins of the latest reductions in poverty and inequality.