Verificação da curva de Kuznets para os municípios do Estado de Santa Catarina: uma análise paramétrica e não paramétrica para os períodos de 1991, 2000 e 2010 Checking of the Kuznets curve for the municipalities of Santa Catarina State, Brazil: A parametric and non-parametric analysis for the years 1991, 2000 and 2010

A question which periodically arises in empirical investigations in the literature regards the relation between economic growth and income ine- quality. The purpose of this study is to test the Kuz- nets hypothesis for the municipalities of the state of Santa Catarina, with data from the Gini index and the per capita income of the years 1991, 2000 and 2010. For this purpose, polynomial specifications of degree two and three and panel data models were used. Additionally, non-parametric regressions were estimated by means of the B-splines estima- tion method. The results suggest the validation of the Kuznets hypothesis for the two parametric spe- cifications, supported by the non-parametric analy- sis. Another fact found was that the inequality for the quantile concentration of lower income reacts much faster to per capita income growth than for higher inequality quantiles.