Work

Intergenerational mobility in Latin America: the multiple facets of social status and the role of mothers

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: We assess intergenerational mobility in terms of education and income rank in five Latin American countries—Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, and Panama—by accounting for the education and occupation of both parents. We find that intergenerational persistence estimates increase by 26% to 50% when parents’ occupations are considered alongside their education to proxy family socioeconomic background. The increase is particularly strong when education is more evenly distributed in the parents’ generation. Furthermore, we assess how the informativeness of each proxy for parental background evolves across countries and over time, and find that maternal characteristics have become increasingly informative in recent decades, in line with rising women’s educational attainment and labor force participation. We also observe interesting heterogeneities across countries and cohorts.

Source: Journal of Population Economics

DOI: 10.1007/s00148-025-01131-1

Authors: Matías Ciaschi, Mariana Marchionni, Guido Neidhöfer

Institutions: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Centre for European Economic Research, Türkisch-Deutsche Universität

Language: English

Topic: Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,190