Mapping Recent Trends in the Distribution of Wealth in Brazil

Abstract

The interest in mapping wealth and how it is concentrated is relatively recent in Brazil, even though Brazilian society remains one of the most unequal in the world, when inequality is measured by taking only labour income and social benefits. When it comes to wealth, the picture is even more appalling. The present paper describes the recent evolution of financial and non-financial personal wealth in Brazil. The aim is to indicate how the different forms of wealth - in particular the strong expansion of fictitious capital - reshape inequalities in Brazil. It starts by contextualizing the difficulties encountered in accessing data on stocks of wealth in Brazil. In the absence of surveys on wealth, the paper describes how pensions and rental income are appropriated by income strata, using research on household spending. It then highlights how land, a real asset par excellence, is being transformed into a financial asset, attracting institutional investors and international capital. Finally, it summarizes some preliminary ideas on how the transition in the nature of wealth, driven by a financialized accumulation regime, impacts the framework of structural inequalities that have long characterized the Brazilian society.