Climbing the Ladder? How Latin Americans See Their Economic Mobility

Maria Gabrielli ()
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Maria Gabrielli: PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris

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Abstract: This paper investigates intergenerational economic mobility in 18 Latin American countries using highly comparable data on self-reported economic status (SRES) from 2000 to 2020. Persistence estimates based on this new measure show a similar order of magnitude to income elasticities, indicating that subjective assessments capture meaningful transmission of advantage across generations.Results show that mobility in the region is both low and uneven. A clear hierarchy emerges, with countries in Central America displaying the lowest mobility. For most countries, persistence has remained broadly stable over time, except for Chile and Peru, where it has risen sharply. A complementary cohort analysis confirms this pattern, as younger cohorts tend to display higher persistence conditional on age.

Keywords: Intergenerational mobility; Inequality; Perceptions; Latin America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-11
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-05360599v1
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