Publication

This paper compares how the United States and Brazil redistribute wealth through social spending and taxes. In particular, the authors take into consideration direct cash and food transfers, targeted housing and heating subsidies, public spending on education and health, and personal income, payroll, corporate income, property, and expenditure taxes. They find that the US achieves higher redistribution through direct taxes and transfers, primarily due to Brazil’s underutilization of the personal income tax and the small coverage of its progressive transfer programs. However, when health and non-tertiary education spending are also considered, the two countries achieve similar levels of redistribution.