Low social mobility in Bolivia: causes and consequences for development
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35319/lajed.20031338Keywords:
Social mobility, Poverty, Economic growthAbstract
This paper investigates social mobility in Bolivia and discusses its implications for poverty reduction and long-term economic growth. Regressions based on information from household surveys show that social mobility is very low in Bolivia, even respect to Latin American standards. This is mainly due to an inadequate system of public education, high corruption, a selective conformation of couples and an insufficient rural-urban migration. As a consequence, poverty tends to be persistent over time. Moreover, low social mobility implies both an inefficient use of innate talent and poor incentives for work and study, which prevents the Bolivian economy from reaching its potential growth rate.
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