From a methodological point of view, this paper makes two contributions to the literature. One contribution is the proposal of a new measure of pro-poor growth. This new measure provides the linkage between growth rates in mean income and in income inequality. In this context, growth is defined as pro-poor (or anti-poor) if there is a gain (or loss) in the growth rate due to a decrease (or increase) in inequality. The other contribution is a decomposition methodology that explores linkages growth patterns, and labour market performances.

This study synthesizes the recent trends and cycles of poverty and inequality during the 1992 to 2004 period in Brazil, detailing some of its closest determinants with special emphasis on the role played by incomes policies. This is a condensed version of the work found in Neri (2007) http://www3.fgv.br/ibrecps/RET3/engl/index.htm. In the second section, we describe poverty long-run movements by monitoring the achievement of the first goal of the millennium development goal of reducing poverty as insufficiency of income.

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.

The recently released "Educational PAC" attempts to place basic education at the center of the social debate. We have subsidized this debate, offering a diagnosis of how different education levels can impact individuals' lives through broad and easily interpreted indicators. Initially, we analyze how much each educational level reaches the poorest population. For example, how are those in the bottom strata of income distribution benefited by childcare centers, private secondary education, public university or adult education.

This paper aims at measuring the evolution of income distribution and its determinants during the period of economic reforms. The paper is divided in two parts: the first and main part of the paper explores long-run relations between reforms and income distribution using standard decomposition techniques. The second part explores these relations at a higher frequency. The main empirical strategy pursued in the long-run part of the paper is to establish comparisons between reform related institutional characteristics and income distribution aspects at different points in time.