Inherited inequality in Latin America

Ferreira, Francisco H. G. ORCID: 0000-0001-8926-0500, Brunori, Paolo ORCID: 0000-0002-1624-905X, Neidhöfer, Guido, Salas-Rojo, Pedro ORCID: 0000-0002-8763-8909 and Sirugue, Louis ORCID: 0009-0001-3687-2674 (2025) Inherited inequality in Latin America. III Working Paper (154). International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

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Abstract

This chapter argues that relative measures of intergenerational mobility and inequality of opportunity are closely related ways of quantifying the inheritability of inequality. We review both literatures for Latin America, looking both at income and educational persistence. We document very high levels of intergenerational persistence and inequality of opportunity for education, with inherited characteristics predicting 29% to 52% of the current-generation variance in years of schooling. Inherited circumstances are somewhat less predictive of educational achievement, measured through standardized test scores, accounting for 20% to 30% of their variance. Our estimates of inequality of opportunity for income acquisition suggest that between 46% to 66% of contemporary income Gini coefficients can be predicted by a relatively narrow set of inherited circumstances, making Latin America a region of high inequality inheritability by international standards. Our review also finds a very wide range of intergenerational income elasticity estimates, with substantial uncertainty driven by data challenges and methodological differences.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Additional Information:	© The Authors
Divisions:	International Inequalities Institute
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
JEL classification:	D - Microeconomics > D3 - Distribution > D31 - Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare and Poverty > I39 - Other J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies > J62 - Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O15 - Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
Date Deposited:	14 Nov 2025 09:54
Last Modified:	14 Nov 2025 09:54
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/130163

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