Year: 2008
Type: book
Abstract: A paradox exists in Latin American countries: the expansion of education has been\nvery significant in recent decades; however, the degree of inequality has not\ndeclined. The obvious question then arises: is education an equalising system? This\npaper seeks to solve this paradox. A theoretical model is constructed to establish the\nrelationship between education and incomes in a socially heterogeneous capitalist\nsociety. The economic process is separated into two partial processes. The first is\nthe education process in which education is transformed into human capital; the\nsecond is the market process in which human capital is transformed into incomes.\nThe initial inequality in the distribution of economic and political assets (which implies\na socially heterogeneous society) plays an essential role in those two processes.\nThis role operates through the basic institutions of capitalism, democracy and the\nmarket system. A set of empirical predictions is then derived from the theoretical\nmodel. The model predicts that the education system is not income equalising; it\nalso predicts that, given the initial inequalities and the workings of the education\nprocess, the market system is not income equalising either. Therefore, a reduction in\ninequality in years of schooling will not imply a fall in the degree of income inequality;\nmoreover, equality in years of schooling does not imply equality in incomes among\nsocial groups. The set of empirical predictions is then tested against Peruvian data\nfrom 2003. Statistical consistency is found between predictions and the data. Thus\nthe theoretical model explains the Peruvian case. Some public policy implications\nare derived from the theory. Further studies are certainly needed in order to test the\ngeneral validity of the proposed theory.
Author: Adolfo Figueroa
Institution: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2288060305