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Social mobility and economic development

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  • Neidhöfer, Guido
  • Ciaschi, Matías
  • Gasparini, Leonardo
  • Serrano, Joaquín

Abstract

We explore the role of social mobility as a driver of economic development. First, we map the geography of intergenerational mobility of education for 52 Latin American regions, as well as its evolution over time. Then, through a new weighting procedure that considers the participation of cohorts to the economy in each year, we estimate the impact of changes in mobility on regional economic indicators, such as income per capita, poverty, child mortality, and luminosity. Our findings show that increasing social mobility had a significant and robust effect on the development of Latin American regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Neidhöfer, Guido & Ciaschi, Matías & Gasparini, Leonardo & Serrano, Joaquín, 2021. "Social mobility and economic development," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-087, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:21087
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    Cited by:

    1. Andrés César & Matías Ciaschi & Guillermo Falcone & Guido Neidhöfer, 2023. "Trade Shocks and Social Mobility: The Intergenerational Effect of Import Competition in Brazil," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0316, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    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. Matías Ciaschi, 2020. "Job loss and household labor supply adjustments in developing countries: Evidence from Argentina," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0271, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Intergenerational Mobility; Equality of Opportunity; Development; Growth; Latin America;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • 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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