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Skin Color and Social Mobility: Evidence From Mexico

Author

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  • Raymundo M. Campos-Vazquez

    (El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos)

  • Eduardo M. Medina-Cortina

    (El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos)

Abstract

In many Latin American countries, census data on race and skin color are scarce or nonexistent. In this study, we contribute to understanding how skin color affects intergenerational social mobility in Mexico. Using a novel data set, we provide evidence of profound social stratification by skin color, even after controlling for specific individual characteristics that previous work has not been able to include, such as individual cognitive and noncognitive abilities, parental education and wealth, and measures of stress and parenting style in the home of origin. Results indicate that people in the lightest skin color category have an average of 1.4 additional years of schooling and 53 % more in hourly earnings than their darkest-skinned counterparts. Social mobility is also related to skin color. Individuals in the darkest category are 20 percentile ranks lower in the current wealth distribution than those in the lightest category, conditional on parental wealth. In addition, results of a quantile regression indicate that the darkest group shows higher downward mobility.

Suggested Citation

  • Raymundo M. Campos-Vazquez & Eduardo M. Medina-Cortina, 2019. "Skin Color and Social Mobility: Evidence From Mexico," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(1), pages 321-343, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:56:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s13524-018-0734-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s13524-018-0734-z
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    Cited by:

    1. JooHee Han, 2020. "Does Skin Tone Matter? Immigrant Mobility in the U.S. Labor Market," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(2), pages 705-726, April.
    2. Luis Monroy-Gómez-Franco & Roberto Vélez-Grajales, 2021. "Skin Tone Differences in Social Mobility in Mexico: Are We Forgetting Regional Variance?," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 257-274, December.
    3. Monroy-Gómez-Franco, Luis, 2023. "Shades of social mobility: Colorism, ethnic origin and intergenerational social mobility," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 247-266.
    4. Monroy-Gómez-Franco, Luis Angel, 2022. "Regional comparisons of intergenerational social mobility: the importance of positional mobility," SocArXiv zgfvk, Center for Open Science.
    5. Paloma Villagómez-Ornelas & Luis Monroy-Gómez-Franco, 2021. "Economic Inequality meets Social Stratification: An Application of Stratification Economics to Mexico," Papers 2021_03, Centro de Estudios Espinosa Yglesias.
    6. Monroy-Gómez-Franco, Luis & Vélez-Grajales, Roberto & Yalonetzky, Gastón, 2021. "Layers of inequality: Unequal opportunities and skin colour in Mexico," MPRA Paper 106605, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Monroy-Gómez-Franco, Luis, 2023. "The importance of positional mobility for regional comparisons," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 322-333.
    8. Braulio Güémez & Patricio Solís, 2022. "Ethnoracial and Educational Homogamy in Mexico: A Multidimensional Perspective," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(6), pages 2331-2363, December.

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