In this paper, we investigate how the diffusion of dual-earner couples has affected aggregate levels of inequality in Brazil. More specifically, we analyze trends in the association between spouses' earnings and assess their implications for earnings inequality among couples from 1993 to 2015. For this purpose, we use log-linear models to distinguish three components of the association between spouses' earnings: a) the correlation between spouses' earnings among dual-earner couples; b) the relationship between husbands' earnings and wives' labor force participation; and c) the proportion of dual-earner couples. Counterfactual simulations allow us to estimate how inequality would change if the trends in the association between spouses' earnings and each of its components had been different. We show that changes in the gradient of wives’ employment and compositional effects related to the increasing prevalence of dual-earner couples contributed to limit the decline in inequality over the studied period.

在本文中，我们调查了双职工夫妇的扩散如何影响巴西的总体不平等水平。更具体地说，我们分析了配偶收入之间关联的趋势，并评估了它们对 1993 年至 2015 年夫妻收入不平等的影响。为此，我们使用对数线性模型来区分配偶收入之间关联的三个组成部分： ) 双职工夫妇配偶收入之间的相关性；b) 丈夫的收入与妻子的劳动力参与率之间的关系；c) 双职工夫妇的比例。反事实模拟使我们能够估计如果配偶收入与其每个组成部分之间的关​​联趋势不同，不平等将如何变化。