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Inequality of opportunity and intergenerational persistence in Latin America

Author

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  • Brunori, Paolo
  • Ferreira, Francisco H. G.
  • Neidhöfer, Guido
Abstract
How strong is the transmission of socio-economic status across generations in Latin America? To answer this question, we first review the empirical literature on intergenerational mobility and inequality of opportunity for the region, summarizing results for both income and educational outcomes. We find that, whereas the income mobility literature is hampered by a paucity of representative datasets containing linked information on parents and children, the inequality of opportunity approach – which relies on other inherited and pre-determined circumstance variables – has suffered from arbitrariness in the choice of population partitions. Two new data-driven approaches – one aligned with the ex-ante and the other with the ex-post conception of inequality of opportunity – are introduced to address this shortcoming. They yield a set of new inequality of opportunity estimates for twenty-seven surveys covering nine Latin American countries over various years between 2000 and 2015. In most cases, more than half of the current generation’s inequality is inherited from the past – with a range between 44% and 63%. We argue that on balance, given the parsimony of the population partitions, these are still likely to be underestimates.

Suggested Citation

  • Brunori, Paolo & Ferreira, Francisco H. G. & Neidhöfer, Guido, 2023. "Inequality of opportunity and intergenerational persistence in Latin America," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120555, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:120555
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/120555/
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Daniel Graeber & Viola Hilbert & Johannes König, 2023. "Inequality of Opportunity in Wealth: Levels, Trends, and Drivers," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1193, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    2. Guido Neidhöfer & Leonardo Gasparini & Matias Ciaschi, "undated". "Intergenerational mobility of economic well-being in Latin America," Working Papers 620, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    3. Brunori, Paolo & Ferreira, Francisco H. G. & Neidhöfer, Guido, 2023. "Inequality of Opportunity and Intergenerational Persistence in Latin America," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13155, Inter-American Development Bank.
    4. Luis Laguinge & Leonardo Gasparini & Guido Neidhöfer, 2024. "The Long-Run Effects of Conditional Cash Transfers: the Case of Bolsa Familia in Brazil," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0328, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    5. Carlos Gradín & Gabriela Zapata-Román, 2024. "Unpacking inequality of opportunity in Chile: the role of birth circumstances using a Shapley decomposition," Working Papers 676, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • I39 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Other
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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