Crisis, reforma estructural y... nuevamente crisis: Desigualdad y bienestar en el Gran Buenos Aires

This paper describes and analyses the evolution of the income distribution and social welfare in the Greater Buenos Aires during the 1986-2001 period. As a consequence of the different economic policies applied during this time, the Gini coefficient experienced sharp movements. During the first years (1986-1991), these movements were mainly determined by the behaviour of the inflation rate. However, after inflation was controlled the unemployment rate and other labour variables increased their importance to explain such movements. To test the statistical significance of inequality changes, confidence intervals are calculated using bootstrapping techniques. Additionally and by using Generalised Lorenz Curves, a ranking of years according to the level of social welfare they had associated is produced. It shows that 1989 hyperinflation had associated the lowest level of welfare of the whole period not only due to its negative distributional consequences, but also because of the significant drop in individual mean earnings. Under price stability and despite the high growth achieved during the nineties, social welfare was always lower than the level it had by 1986. The main reason for such a result is the considerable worsening in income distribution during these years.