Educación Y Movilidad Social En México (Education and Soical Mobility in Mexico)

Abstract

This article analyzes the relationship between education and social mobility in the case of Mexico using the ESRU. According to our estimates, there is evidence of considerable levels of positive educational mobility between generations and intra generations over the past decades. At the same time, the educational mobility implies mobility of socio-economic level measured in terms of income. The lower educational level of parents, the higher impact of the educational progress on the income of subsequent generations. Our main results are consistent with the trends derived from similar analysis using the national survey of income and expenditure of households in the year 2006, which can be interpreted as a test of robustness. Also, the results suggest that investment in education, particularly, in public education that grants access to educational services for the open population, constitutes an investment in equity. Through access to education, the level of well-being of the present generations is less dependent on the social position of their household of origin. In addition, we identify that the higher performance of public investment in education in terms of social mobility, is obtained by investing in households whose head has lower levels of education.