Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/91288 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
Texto para Discussão No. 1832
Publisher: 
Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (IPEA), Brasília
Abstract (Translated): 
This paper documents and tries to explain the discrepancies between the income distributions reported by the three major household surveys in Brazil: the Census, the Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD) and the Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares (POF). The main hypothesis is that key differences in survey design are responsible for these results, which can be remedied by a relatively small number of harmonization procedures. Our analysis largely confirms this hypothesis: the harmonized data yields very consistent results in the Census, the PNAD and the POF. Although the levels of income, inequality and poverty are not exactly the same, the trends are very similar: income growth, the fall in inequality and poverty reduction in the past decade can be considered well-established facts. Most of the differences between the income data in the three surveys can be explained by disparities in sample design, conceptual framework and the statistical treatment of the data. Thus, it is not surprising that the three surveys report divergent figures, as they are not directly comparable.
Subjects: 
household surveys
income distribution
income inequality
income poverty
JEL: 
I31
I32
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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