Part of Brazil has greater intergenerational mobility than the US – 05/15/2023 – Michael França

Intergenerational mobility is a measure of how much we have advanced or regressed in certain dimensions in relation to our parents. It is directly linked to the set of opportunities we had in our trajectories and can be measured by looking at income, social class, health, education or other measures of well-being.

In this context, there are several factors that affect the chances of moving forward in life. Many of them are beyond our control. Gender, race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background of our parents, place of birth, initial health conditions and having some type of disability are just a few examples.

This causes many to start the game of life in positions of significant disadvantage in relation to others and, even in developed countries, these factors have a negative influence on individual trajectories.

According to a study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that used a sample of European countries, people who had a disadvantaged background earned about 20% less than those who had a more favored childhood. Furthermore, research suggests that the costs of childhood socioeconomic disadvantage for these countries could amount to around 3.4% of GDP annually,

In the Brazilian case, at least when we consider the educational aspect, part of the population showed intergenerational mobility greater than that seen in the United States.

According to data made available by the Instituto Mobilidade e Desenvolvimento Social (IMDS), the chance of an American between 25 and 64 years of age reaching higher education, given that their parents had incomplete secondary education or a lower education, was 13.5%. In Brazil, this number rises to 14.2% when we consider only the white population and drops to 7.0% if we consider the black population.

However, there have been some advances for blacks when we look at the younger generations. If we condition those who are between 55 and 64 years old, the chance of reaching higher education was 7.8% and for those aged 25 to 34 years old, this value rises to 11.4%. However, in the case of whites, these numbers are much higher than those of blacks considering both age groups. It goes from 19.3% among the oldest to 29.7% when we take into account the younger generations.

In this context, equalizing intergenerational mobility among different population subgroups is more challenging than many people imagine. This applies not only to education, but also to income.

In a master’s thesis recently defended at the University of São Paulo, researcher Bruna Cricci crossed data from the São Paulo public school network with those from the Annual Social Information Report (RAIS) to investigate intergenerational income mobility. Among the results of the study, she found evidence suggesting that, even attending schools that have better school performance in the public education network, the intergenerational mobility of blacks is lower than that observed among whites.

In recent years, the academic literature has been estimating the explanatory power of the various variables that affect our chances of progressing. With regard to education, for example, socioeconomic disadvantages profoundly affect the learning process and child development, thus having an impact on the skills acquired throughout life. The repercussions of this on the labor market affect employability and earnings. And the impact is not only on access to material goods, but also on socio-emotional development.

This text is a tribute to the song “Meu Guri”, by Chico Buarque

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