Aspiration failure: a poverty trap for indigenous children in Peru?

Laure Pasquier-Doumer and Fiorella Risso Brandon Fiorella Risso Brandon ()
Additional contact information
Fiorella Risso Brandon Fiorella Risso Brandon: PSL, Université Paris-Dauphine, LEDa, IRD, UMR 225 DIAL

No DT/2013/10, Working Papers from DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation)

Abstract: (english) This paper aims to contribute to understand the mechanisms underlying the complex exclusion process of indigenous people in Peru, by analysing the role played by aspirations in the investment in education of indigenous children. To address these issues, the paper relies on a very rich data set, the Young Lives data, and use an original instrument that allow to cast light on the causal relation between aspiration and educational outcomes. We find that aspiration failure is a channel of inequality persistence between indigenous and non-indigenous people, but that aspiration failure do not takes the form of a lack of aspiration. Indigenous children do not have internalized racial schemas about occupation or about their opportunities. However, the gap between their aspiration and their current socio-economic status is too large, in so far as it has a disincentive effect on forward-looking behaviour. _________________________________ (français) Ce document vise à mieux comprendre les mécanismes qui sous-tendent le processus d'exclusion des indigènes au Pérou. Nous analysons en particulier le rôle joué par les aspirations des enfants indigènes sur leur investissement scolaire. En utilisant les données des enquêtes Young Lives et en mobilisant un instrument original, cet article permet d’identifier la relation causale entre les aspirations et les résultats scolaires. Nous montrons que les aspirations participent à la persistance des inégalités entre les populations indigènes et non indigènes. Cependant, cette transmission des inégalités ne passe pas par une auto-limitation des aspirations de la part des enfants indigènes, mais plutôt par un écart trop important entre les aspirations des enfants indigènes et leur statut socio-économique. La trop longue distance à parcourir pour combler cet écart a un effet désincitatif sur les efforts fournis par les enfants indigènes à l’école. En revanche, il apparaît que les enfants indigènes n’ont pas intériorisé les valeurs discriminatoires à l’encontre des indigènes dans leur façon de former leurs aspirations.

Keywords: aspiration; indigenous; educational outcomes; Peru; aspiration; indigènes; résultats scolaires; Pérou. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D01 I24 J15 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2013-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-lam
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://dial.ird.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/201 ... children-in-Peru.pdf First version, 2013 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Aspiration Failure: A Poverty Trap for Indigenous Children in Peru? (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt201310

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