Distribuição de renda na América Latina em perspectiva histórica

This article seeks to understand the recent process of reduction of poverty and economic inequality in the main countries of Latin America in the 2000s. The study draws attention to two specificities of the region: at the same time that it gathers the most unequal countries in the world, the region also concentrates the few nations that were able to achieve a decrease in income inequality in the 2000s. The article is divided into four sections, which highlight the specificities of the countries of the region regarding the issue of income distribution, in an international comparison. The following sections discuss historical/structural and institutional aspects that explain the continent's high inequality and also allow us to understand the nature of the reversal of poverty and inequality indicators from 2014 on, when the commodity boom showed signs of exhaustion. The conclusions highlight the necessity of maintaining policies that lead to economic growth, and that they should be accompanied by public policies to face the problem of income inequality and poverty.