Hoffmann (2005), De Lima, Barreto and Marinho (2003) and Menezes and Pinto (2005). These findings can then be used to compare inequality and income elasticities of poverty and extreme poverty in different periods of the economic history of Brazil. In the second section, a brief overview is presented of the literature on the impact that economic growth, on the one hand, and income inequality, on the other, have on poverty. This is followed by a description of the database, models and econometric methodology that have been used.