Migração e desigualdade regional de renda: uma análise do estado de Minas Gerais comparado com o Brasil

The present work investigates whether Brazilian migrants (individuals that live outside their home state) income is, on average, at the level or superior to non-migrant workers. We also present a comparative analysis of income distribution between migrant and non-migrant workers for Brazil and Minas Gerais County specifically in the years of 2002 and 2004. In order to do this we employed a methodology based on two main aspects; earning equations and data measuring inequality and poverty rates obtained from the Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicilios institute (PNAD). The results obtained here indicate that migrants form a group positively selected displaying an average income higher than those of the non-migrant group. Nevertheless we found no evidence showing that the income differential between migrants and non-migrants contributes to a significant increase in inequality rates in the period studied here. A decrease in the estimated coefficient - shows, assuming that the migratory flow remains constant, a decline in the importance of the migrant in explaining income variation between individuals and that this decline could be prompting a reduction in income inequality rate levels