Intergenerational educational mobility in Latin America. An analysis from the equal opportunity approach

Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine intergenerational educational mobility (IEM) in Latin America from the equal opportunity (EOP) approach. To this end, using the Latinobarómetro survey, a new technique is applied to measure the degree of overlap between the observed joint density of parents’ and children’s educational levels and the theoretical density corresponding to an EOP situation. The main results show a significant increase in mean IEM levels. However, there is no improvement in EOP measures among children of parents with the lowest levels of education.