Essays on poverty, income inequality, and human capital considering spatial heterogeneity

• Grant number: 24/08368-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: January 02, 2025
• End date: January 01, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Economics - Growth, Fluctuations and Economic Planning
• Principal Investigator: Luciano Nakabashi
• Grantee: Luciano Nakabashi
• Host Investigator: David Nathan Weil
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade de Ribeirão Preto (FEARP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Brown University, United States

Abstract

This project aims to examine the effects of poverty and income inequality on human capital and development levels in Brazilian municipalities, taking spatial heterogeneity into account. Four studies will be conducted. The first will focus on estimating and analyzing poverty indicators. The second will analyze the effects of poverty on human capital accumulation. The third will examine the effects of initial poverty on the 'advantage of backwardness', i.e., the influence of initial income on subsequent income growth, as well as the impact of economic growth on poverty reduction. The fourth study will analyze the effects of initial poverty on the poverty convergence process. The last three studies will use Brazilian municipalities between 1991 and 2010 (or until 2022, if microdata from the latest census are available) as the unit of analysis, considering spatial heterogeneity in these processes.