We expect to find a negative relationship between poverty and this variable. It is worth noting that the Brazilian economy showed growth in income per capita over the period 1995-2009. Thus, the absolute poverty indicator used is the proportion of poor people (/>0). This index is frequently used to express income inequality and may be linked to the so-called Lorenz curve, which is defined by the set of points obtained by plotting income shares against population shares in ascending order. On the basis of this curve, we then calculate Gini coefficients for each of the states between 1995 and 2009. As discussed in the previous section, the relationship between the Gini coefficient and poverty must be positive.