Social structure and income inequality: a comparison between the Brazil’s metropolitan and non-metropolitan cities from 2000 to 2010

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the changes in the social structure and income inequality of the main Brazilian metropolitan cities in comparison to non-metropolitan areas, in order to reflect on their importance in the context of economic and social changes that have taken place in the country over the last decade. Nevertheless, when it comes to public and academic debate based on the analysis of income groups, its focus has fallen mainly on the reduction of income inequalities, but not always considering social structure. In this sense, the attempt is  to answer the following question: if the reduction of income inequality is observed in the analysis among income strata, is also being observed among socio-occupational stratification, and how did this take effect in the metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas? For this purpose were used data from the IBGE – 2000 and 2010 Demographic Censuses, aiming a  comparison of the income distribution structure among municipalities according to their population size, but considering also those municipalities located in the metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas, as well as the income inequalities between social strata in the different spatial context by utilizing the ratio of average income among those strata. The results show that although the Brazilian metropolitan areas maintain its centrality regarding the labor market dynamics, since they present higher average of total income and labor income of its residents than the non-metropolitan areas, the biggest reductions in income inequality in the period occurred in non-metropolitan areas, especially in smaller municipalities according to their population size.