The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence of Educational Persistence and the “Great Gatsby Curve" in Brazil

Tharcisio Leone ()

No 17526, Documentos de Trabajo from The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA)

Abstract: This paper explores the variation in intergenerational educational mobility across the Brazilian states based on transition matrixes and univariate econometric techniques. The analysis of the national household survey (PNAD-2014) confirms a strong variation in mobility among the 27 states in Brazil and demonstrates a significant correlation between mobility and income inequality. In this sense, this work presents empirical evidence for the "Great Gatsby Curve" within a single country: states with greater income disparities present higher levels of persistence in education across generations. Finally, I investigate one specific mechanism behind this correlation – namely, whether higher income inequality might lead to a lower investment in human capital among children from socially vulnerable households. The paper delivers robust and compelling results showing that children born into families where the parents have not completed primary education have a statistically significant reduction in their chance of completing the educational system if they live in states with a higher level of income inequality.

Keywords: Intergenerational mobility; Great Gatsby curve; socio-economic marginalization; inequality; Brazil. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I24 I26 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32
Date: 2019-10-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://vox.lacea.org/files/Working_Papers/lacea_wps_0032_leone.pdf

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:col:000518:017526

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Documentos de Trabajo from The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LACEA ().