IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/iisecd/2005_003.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Macroeconomic Policies to Increase Social Mobility and Growth in Bolivia

Author

Listed:
  • Mercado, Alejandro F.

    (IISEC, Universidad Católica Boliviana)

  • Andersen, Likke Eg

    (IISEC, Universidad Católica Boliviana)

  • Brooks, Alice J.

    (IISEC, Universidad Católica Boliviana)

Abstract

Poverty in Bolivia continues to be among the highest in Latin America despite decades of concerted national and international efforts to reduce it. Bolivia has meticulously followed the recommendations of the Washington consensus at the same time as external aid has been generous and foreign direct investment has boomed. Nevertheless, average productivity and incomes remain at the same low level as they were 50 years ago. This paper suggests that the failure of previous development policies is due to a lack of social mobility in the country. Without social mobility, there is little incentive for people to invest in human and physical capital, and without investment there cannot be productivity growth. In addition, the lack of social mobility implies an inefficient use of human capital, and it hinders the construction of efficient social mechanisms for redistribution and consumption smoothing over the life-cycle. Instituto de Investigaciones Socio - Económicas; IISEC

Suggested Citation

  • Mercado, Alejandro F. & Andersen, Likke Eg & Brooks, Alice J., 2005. "Macroeconomic Policies to Increase Social Mobility and Growth in Bolivia," Documentos de trabajo 3/2005, Instituto de Investigaciones Socio-Económicas (IISEC), Universidad Católica Boliviana.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:iisecd:2005_003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.iisec.ucb.edu.bo/assets_iisec/publicacion/2005-3.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Hassler & José Rodríguez Mora & Joseph Zeira, 2007. "Inequality and mobility," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 235-259, September.
    2. Galor, Oded & Tsiddon, Daniel, 1997. "Technological Progress, Mobility, and Economic Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(3), pages 363-382, June.
    3. Lykke E. Andersen & José Luis Evia, 2003. "The Effectiveness of Foreign Aid in Bolivia," Development Research Working Paper Series 01/2003, Institute for Advanced Development Studies.
    4. Marianne Hilgert & Miguel Sz kely, 1999. "Whats Behind the Inequality We Measure? An Investigation Using Latin American Data," LIS Working papers 234, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    5. Baumol, William J., 1996. "Entrepreneurship: Productive, unproductive, and destructive," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 3-22, January.
    6. Lykke Andersen, 2001. "Social Mobility in Latin America: Links with Adolescent Schooling," Research Department Publications 3130, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    7. Michael Kremer, 1997. "How Much does Sorting Increase Inequality?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 115-139.
    8. Nancy Birdsall & Jere R. Behrman & Miguel Székely, 1998. "Intergenerational Schooling Mobility and Macro Conditions and Schooling Policies in Latin America," Research Department Publications 4144, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    9. Pritchett, Lant, 1996. "Where has all the education gone?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1581, The World Bank.
    10. Kevin M. Murphy & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1991. "The Allocation of Talent: Implications for Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 503-530.
    11. Vela, Mauricio A. & Miller, Sebastián J., 2014. "Is Disaster Risk Reduction Spending Driven by the Occurrence of Natural Disasters? Evidence from Peru," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 6446, Inter-American Development Bank.
    12. Dahan, Momi & Gaviria, Alejandro, 1999. "Sibling Correlations and Social Mobility in Latin America," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1301, Inter-American Development Bank.
    13. Jose V. Rodriguez Mora & John Hassler, 2000. "Intelligence, Social Mobility, and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 888-908, September.
    14. Lykke E. Andersen & José Acuña & Luis Carlos Jemio & Fabián E. Soria & Natalia Zegarra, 2016. "E - Educación," INESAD book chapters, in: Lykke E. Andersen & Boris Branisa & Stefano Canelas (ed.), El ABC del desarrollo en Bolivia, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 63-71, Institute for Advanced Development Studies.
    15. Lakshmi K. Raut, 1996. "Signalling equilibrium, Intergenerational mobility and long-run growth," GE, Growth, Math methods 9603002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Stephan Klasen & Melanie Grosse & Rainer Thiele & Jann Lay & Julius Spatz & Manfred Wiebelt, 2004. "Operationalizing Pro-Poor Growth - Country Case Study: Bolivia," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 101, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    17. Mercado, Alejandro F. & Andersen, Lykke E. & Muriel H., Beatriz, 2003. "Discriminación étnica en el sistema educativo y el mercado de trabajo de Bolivia," Revista Latinoamericana de Desarrollo Economico, Carrera de Economía de la Universidad Católica Boliviana (UCB) "San Pablo", issue 1, pages 63-98, Septiembr.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. World Bank, 2005. "Bolivia : Poverty Assessment, Establishing the Basis for More Pro-Poor Growth," World Bank Publications - Reports 8412, The World Bank Group.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andersen, Lykke E., 2010. "Social Mobility in Bolivia is Finally Improving!," Revista Latinoamericana de Desarrollo Economico, Carrera de Economía de la Universidad Católica Boliviana (UCB) "San Pablo", issue 13, pages 117-136.
    2. Andersen, Lykke Eg, 2001. "Low Social Mobility in Bolivia: Causes and Consequences for Development," Documentos de trabajo 3/2001, Instituto de Investigaciones Socio-Económicas (IISEC), Universidad Católica Boliviana.
    3. Lykke Andersen, 2001. "Social Mobility in Latin America: Links with Adolescent Schooling," Research Department Publications 3130, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    4. Sjögren, Anna, 2000. "Redistribution, Occupational Choice and Intergenerational Mobility: Does Wage Equality Nail the Cobbler to His Last?," Working Paper Series 538, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    5. Alejandro Gaviria & Momi Dahan, 1999. "Correlaciones entre hermanos y movilidad social en América Latina," Research Department Publications 4163, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    6. Michele Bernasconi & Paola Profeta, 2007. "Redistribution or Education? The Political Economy of the Social Race," CESifo Working Paper Series 1934, CESifo.
    7. Maria Rosaria Carillo & Vincenzo Lombardo & Alberto Zazzaro, 2013. "Family Firm Connections and Entrepreneurial Human Capital in the Process of Development," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 89, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    8. Dahan, Momi & Gaviria, Alejandro, 1999. "Sibling Correlations and Social Mobility in Latin America," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1301, Inter-American Development Bank.
    9. Bernasconi, Michele & Profeta, Paola, 2012. "Public education and redistribution when talents are mismatched," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 84-96.
    10. Lina Marcela Moyano & Luis Armando Galvis, 2014. "¿Oportunidades para el futuro?: la movilidad social de los adolescentes en Colombia," Documentos de trabajo sobre Economía Regional y Urbana 211, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    11. Patricia Crifo & Hind Sami, 2008. "Entrepreneurship, technological change and endogenous returns to ability," Post-Print hal-00243037, HAL.
    12. Guido Neidhöfer, 2019. "Intergenerational mobility and the rise and fall of inequality: Lessons from Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(4), pages 499-520, December.
    13. Corneo, Giacomo, 2013. "Work norms, social insurance and the allocation of talent," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 79-92.
    14. Kuehn, Zoe, 2012. "Migration, Wages, and Parental Background: Obstacles to Entrepreneurship and Growth in East Germany," MPRA Paper 49250, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Andersen, Lykke Eg, 2000. "Social Mobility in Latin America," Documentos de trabajo 3/2000, Instituto de Investigaciones Socio-Económicas (IISEC), Universidad Católica Boliviana.
    16. Sebastián Galiani, 2013. "Social Mobility: What is it and Why Does it Matter?," Económica, Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, vol. 59, pages 167-229, January-D.
    17. Hassler, J. & Rodriguez Mora, J.V., 1998. "IQ, Social Mobility and Growth," Papers 635, Stockholm - International Economic Studies.
    18. Guillermo Cruces & Marcelo Bérgolo & Andriana Conconi & Andrés Ham, 2012. "Are there Etchnic Inequality Traps in Education ? Empirical Evidence for Brazil and Chile," Working Papers PMMA 2012-05, PEP-PMMA.
    19. John Hassler & José Rodríguez Mora & Joseph Zeira, 2007. "Inequality and mobility," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 235-259, September.
    20. Iyigun, Murat F & Owen, Ann L, 1999. "Entrepreneurs, Professionals, and Growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 213-232, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social Mobility; Development; Public Policy; Bolivia; Instituto de Investigaciones Socio - Económicas; IISEC;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E60 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - General
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:iisecd:2005_003. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tirza Aguilar (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iisecbo.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.