Educational Systems and the Intergenerational Transmission of Inequality: A Complex Dynamical Systems Perspective

Abstract

Human beings have many observable and measurable characteristics that distinguish and segregate them in many ways. Some segregations result from the structure of organizations through which an individual transit along—like the educational system—that interact with other modes of inherited segregations like race, income, sex, geographical area, etc. This chapter is about the intergenerational transmission of income inequalities induced by educational systems that generate persistent effects on societies. One may naturally think of the influence that aggregate characteristics of a community have on schooling decisions. Youngsters in low-income families, for example, are more likely to fail and dropout the school, starting out at a disadvantage in the labor market and restricting their future earnings. These individual decisions, in turn, affect aggregate outcomes that could potentially explain why societies show self-perpetuating inequalities in education and income distribution that reinforce each other over time. This issue is attracting significant attention recently, and new interdisciplinary knowledge is needed to inform and guide the current and future debates. A Complex Dynamical Systems (CDS ) approach is essential to understand the persistence of income inequalities that educational systems generate in the context of global trends. A CDS simulation model will be applied to track down the complex interaction of such inequalities and draw alternative causal inferences to those documented by studies using correlation methods. Baseline simulations are contrasted to data compiled from Nicaragua (2000–2010) in order to assess the model ability to replicate historical observations. The method can be extended for the purpose of designing and evaluating feasible, cost-effective policies to attenuate social and economic disparities in society. We conclude that inequality is detrimental for the operational efficiency of the educational system itself.