One of the points made in the article was that Brazil had used a basic welfare payment to bring people into the regular economy.  People used the welfare payment to cover basic needs, and then were able to take microloans to build businesses that are in the formal economy.

So the question is how much of this improvement is economic formalization and how much is a change in the underlying distribution of income?

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg