Centro de Políticas Sociais

This paper analyses the effect of income policies on income distribution in Brazil, its nearterm impacts and potential long-term effects through the distribution of opportunities. It demonstrates the impact of electoral cycles motivating the expansion of monetary transfers. It evaluates the targeting efficiency of the principal income policies in terms of the fiscal costs versus short-term benefits to social welfare. We take advantage of the recent expansion of these benefits to test how this affected the distribution of opportunities. It evaluates the impacts of these policies using a difference-in-difference approach between income strata and discusses desirable upgrades for Brazilian policies.