The Dynamics of Poverty in Bolivia

Abstract

The research aims to the understanding of the main factors that explain the dynamics of poverty in Bolivia. A main working hypothesis is that poverty is strongly linked to low social mobility levels. Social mobility can be defined as the equality of opportunities, or in other words, the probability that somebody can reach a better social position independently of his position of origin.
We rely in the concept that low social mobility generates a vicious poverty circle in which households that were poor yesterday, will see that their children are poor today, and with high probability, their children's children will be poor tomorrow. Indeed, our research hypothesis is that the dynamics of the phenomenon (the vicious circle) is explained fundamentally by two self reinforcing factors - ethnic and gender discrimination; which in turn lower the social mobility levels in a dynamic framework. This is proved partially along this research, especially for the subsets of indigenous women.