ABSTRACT

This chapter assesses the transformation in the social indicators of the city of Rio during the Olympic cycle. The idea is to first evaluate what happened after the Olympic announcement and make a comparison with what was happening in the city before it was announced as the Olympic host city. In a nutshell, the Olympic period reversed a negative trend of social indicators of the city. In a comparison between the capital and the periphery of Rio metropolitan region, we observed a V-shaped trajectory, that is, before the announcement there were three times more setbacks in the city of Rio than after Rio2016 was announced. Moreover, Rio’s performance has been surprisingly positive after the Olympics, in contrast with evidence on gross domestic product and formal employment evolution. Rio’s economic transition after the end of the cycle of mega-events in the city was better regarding per capita income and labor earnings captured in household surveys that also show a rise in informality that may explain the data divergence. Furthermore, most income gains went to the richest segments in the city. In sum, the growth of local income post Rio2016 came hand in hand with a rise in both inequality and informality.