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Beyond overall income inequality: Racial income gaps and health disparities

Gedeão Locks & Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez

World Development2026https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107340article
AJG 3ABDC A*
Weight
0.41

Abstract

• Racial income gaps explain 14% of Brazil’s Gini coefficient. • Overall income inequality correlates with Non-White mortality but not White mortality. • Nearly 80% of the racial income gap is explained by differences in schooling. • The structural component (21%) is strongly associated with homicides among young Non-White men. • Closing education gaps is insufficient to eliminate racial mortality disparities in Brazil. In this paper, we combine Census data with death records to examine the relationship between income inequality and race-specific mortality across 5,565 municipalities in Brazil. We find that overall income inequality is strongly associated with Non-White mortality but not with White mortality. To understand this disparity, we decompose the Gini coefficient and find that the racial income gap accounts for 14% of overall income inequality. Using an Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition, we show that 79% of the racial income gap is explained by differences in education between Whites and Non-Whites. Finally, we document that the residual (structural) component of the racial income gap is strongly associated with Non-White male mortality, particularly homicides at young ages. Our results imply that closing schooling gaps alone will not eliminate racial health disparities in Brazil.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107340

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@article{gedeão2026,
  title        = {{Beyond overall income inequality: Racial income gaps and health disparities}},
  author       = {Gedeão Locks & Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez},
  journal      = {World Development},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107340},
}

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Evidence weight

0.41

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.25 × 0.4 = 0.10
M · momentum0.55 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

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