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Brazil’s New Middle Classes: The Bright Side of the Poor

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Latin America’s Emerging Middle Classes

Part of the book series: International Political Economy Series ((IPES))

Abstract

This chapter discusses the new Brazilian middle class, its definition, evolution, profile, attitudes and durability.2 It describes the methodology used to determine economic classes and reveals that 42 million Brazilians joined the middle class since 2003 due to a combination of economic growth and increased equity. It forecasts different economic classes’ paths and calculates individual income risks from longitudinal data.

Most of the results presented here derive from work done at the Center for Social Policies (CPS/FGV). I would like to thank Luisa Melo and Samanta Sacramento for their excellent assistance and Jeff Dayton-Johnson for his careful comments.

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© 2015 Marcelo Neri

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Neri, M. (2015). Brazil’s New Middle Classes: The Bright Side of the Poor. In: Dayton-Johnson, J. (eds) Latin America’s Emerging Middle Classes. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137320797_4

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