Intergenerational educational mobility in Latin America. An analysis from the equal opportunity approach

Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine intergenerational educational mobility (IEM) in Latin America and its relation to the concept of equal opportunity (EOP). To this end, using the Latinobarómetro survey, a new technique is applied to measure the degree of overlap between the observed conditional density of the children’s education given the parents' education and the theoretical density corresponding to an EOP situation. The main results show a significant increase in mean IEM levels. However, there is no improvement in EOP levels among children of parents with the lowest levels of education.

Keywords

• Movilidad intergeneracional
• Educación
• Igualdad de oportunidades
• Índice de solapamiento
• América Latina