Income and wealth inequality in Brazil INCOME AND WEALTH INEQUALITY IN BRAZIL INCOME DISTRIBUTION Given the sparse – or unreliable – evidence relating to wealth inequality in Brazil, we chose to start our analysis with a fo­cus on the various sources of information on income ine­quality. In this regard, some recent studies using administra­tive data from tax records have shown that household sur­veys systematically underestimate income concentration at the top of the distribution structure(Medeiros et al., 2015; Gobetti; Orair, 2017). Bottega et al.(2021a) combine data from the Brazilian consumer expenditure survey( Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares, POF) for 2017–2018, and person­al income tax statements(DIRPF), adjusted for total family income obtained from the System of National Accounts (SNA). They find that income appropriation by the 0.5 per cent at the top of the pyramid is 2.47 times higher when in­come for the top of the distribution pyramid is corrected 1 . 1 Along these lines, De Rosa et al.(2022, p. 32) find that Brazil is one of the Latin American countries for whom“inequality trends during the high-growth years(2003–2013) change after the survey’s reported Using the same methodology, Bottega et al.(2021b) esti­mate that, for individuals aged 18 and over with positive income, the wealthiest 10 per cent appropriate 53.7 per cent, or more than half, of national personal income, which is 106 times the share appropriated by the poorest 10 per cent(Graph 1). Appropriation by the top 1 per cent and 0.1 per cent is even more startling: 24.6 per cent(almost a quarter) and 12.1 per cent of national personal income, re­spectively, are concentrated in this group. Thus, even among the richest strata, we can observe a high degree of inequality, since the top 1 per cent captures almost half of income earned by the top 10 per cent while, similarly, the top 0.1 per cent accounts for almost half of the top 1 per cent’s income(Table 1). income is augmented to include ignored top incomes from admin­istrative data and macroeconomic incomes of the household sector and total economy from the national accounts.(...). More­over, dur­ing the low-growth years at the end of our period of analysis(post­2015), inequality has increased faster in the augmented series than in the raw series”. Graph 1 Appropriation of national income by income deciles and demographic composition 60 Appropriation of total income by group (%) 50 40 30 20 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Position in Income Distribution White men White women Black men Black women Source: Made-FEA/USP(Bottega et al., 2021b, Graph 3) 3