Social articulation as a condition for equitable growth

A formal model is developed to establish the structural conditions that result in growth being progressive or regressive on the personal distribution of income. These conditions include (1) intersectoral investment priorities between wage goods and luxuries, and (2) the state of the levels and distribution of incomes which determines the social origin of demand for different sectors of the economy. The particular combinations of investment and income structures that result in equalizing (social articulation) or unequalizing growth (social disarticulation) are derived. We show empirically that the structural conditions that allowed rapid but unequalizing growth in Brazil between 1968 and 1977 were those of social disarticulation.