Personal Income Distribution Within States and Income Inequality Between States in Brazil: 1960, 70, 80 and 91

The analysis of income inequalities among regions has gained new interest lately, with the development of the literature on endogenous growth. On the other hand, new evidence on personal income inequalities worldwide brings a growing interest on the subject. What remains to be done is the association of both aspects of income inequality: regional and personal. In this sense, the present chapter offers a different perspective on the internal-external distinctions raised by Miyazawa (1966, 1971); while Miyazawa considered the interactions between different types of sectors (manufacturing and non-manufacturing) as well as between regions, the formulation of income distribution was confined to distributions across groups within a region. The application to be described here takes the analysis one step further by addressing concerns about the role of internal (i.e. interpersonal income distributions) and their relationship with interregional distributions. In a sense, this chapter provides a complementary perspective to that advanced by Amos (1988); the focus of attention here was on income distribution within regions as the process of convergence was observed among the regions of the US.