Inequality and Stratification in Latin America

Abstract

Abstract This chapter reviews current research on inequality, social stratification, and intergenerational mobility in Latin America. It is proposed that ascriptive factors such as gender and ethno-racial markers play a distinctive role that significantly affects the position individuals occupy in the status hierarchy. Besides the traditional mediating factors in the mobility process—such as educational achievement and occupational trajectory—the region also has particularities not observed in other places. On the one hand, average returns on schooling are higher in Latin America than in any other region of the world. On the other hand, Latin American labor markets are characterized by an enormous self-employed sector. This class is much larger and more heterogeneous in Latin America, giving rise to the notion of the “informal” sector. The chapter addresses some of the mechanisms bridging ascriptive characters and social origins with the mediating factors of social mobility.