Economic Mobility and the Rise of the Latin American Middle Class

After decades of stagnation, the size of Latin America's middle class recently expanded to the point where, for the first time ever, the number of people in poverty is equal to the size of the middle class. This volume investigates the nature, determinants and possible consequences of this rema...

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Main Authors:	Ferreira, Francisco H.G., Messina, Julian, Rigolini, Jamele, López-Calva, Luis-Felipe, Lugo, Maria Ana, Vakis, Renos
Format:	Publication
Language:	English
Published:	Washington, DC: World Bank 2012
Subjects:	Inequality Measurement Middle Class Mobility Poverty Social Class Vulnerability
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11858

id	okr-10986-11858
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-118582021-04-23T14:02:58Z Economic Mobility and the Rise of the Latin American Middle Class Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Messina, Julian Rigolini, Jamele López-Calva, Luis-Felipe Lugo, Maria Ana Vakis, Renos Inequality Measurement Middle Class Mobility Poverty Social Class Vulnerability After decades of stagnation, the size of Latin America's middle class recently expanded to the point where, for the first time ever, the number of people in poverty is equal to the size of the middle class. This volume investigates the nature, determinants and possible consequences of this remarkable process of social transformation. We propose an original definition of the middle class, tailor-made for Latin America, centered on the concept of economic security and thus a low probability of falling into poverty. Given our definition of the middle class, there are four, not three, classes in Latin America. Sandwiched between the poor and the middle class there lies a large group of people who appear to make ends meet well enough, but do not enjoy the economic security that would be required for membership of the middle class. We call this group the 'vulnerable'. In an almost mechanical sense, these transformations in Latin America reflect both economic growth and declining inequality in over the period. We adopt a measure of mobility that decomposes the 'gainers' and 'losers' in society by social class of each household. The continent has experienced a large amount of churning over the last 15 years, at least 43% of all Latin Americans changed social classes between the mid 1990s and the end of the 2000s. Despite the upward mobility trend, intergenerational mobility, a better proxy for inequality of opportunity, remains stagnant. Educational achievement and attainment remain to be strongly dependent upon parental education levels. Despite the recent growth in pro-poor programs, the middle class has benefited disproportionally from social security transfers and are increasingly opting out from government services. Central to the region's prospects of continued progress will be its ability to harness the new middle class into a new, more inclusive social contract, where the better-off pay their fair share of taxes, and demand improved public services. 2012-11-13T15:44:37Z 2012-11-13T15:44:37Z 2013 978-0-8213-9634-6 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11858 en World Bank Latin American and Caribbean Studies; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Publications & Research :: Publication Publications & Research Latin America & Caribbean Latin America and the Caribbean
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	Inequality Measurement Middle Class Mobility Poverty Social Class Vulnerability
spellingShingle	Inequality Measurement Middle Class Mobility Poverty Social Class Vulnerability Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Messina, Julian Rigolini, Jamele López-Calva, Luis-Felipe Lugo, Maria Ana Vakis, Renos Economic Mobility and the Rise of the Latin American Middle Class
geographic_facet	Latin America & Caribbean Latin America and the Caribbean
relation	World Bank Latin American and Caribbean Studies;
description	After decades of stagnation, the size of Latin America's middle class recently expanded to the point where, for the first time ever, the number of people in poverty is equal to the size of the middle class. This volume investigates the nature, determinants and possible consequences of this remarkable process of social transformation. We propose an original definition of the middle class, tailor-made for Latin America, centered on the concept of economic security and thus a low probability of falling into poverty. Given our definition of the middle class, there are four, not three, classes in Latin America. Sandwiched between the poor and the middle class there lies a large group of people who appear to make ends meet well enough, but do not enjoy the economic security that would be required for membership of the middle class. We call this group the 'vulnerable'. In an almost mechanical sense, these transformations in Latin America reflect both economic growth and declining inequality in over the period. We adopt a measure of mobility that decomposes the 'gainers' and 'losers' in society by social class of each household. The continent has experienced a large amount of churning over the last 15 years, at least 43% of all Latin Americans changed social classes between the mid 1990s and the end of the 2000s. Despite the upward mobility trend, intergenerational mobility, a better proxy for inequality of opportunity, remains stagnant. Educational achievement and attainment remain to be strongly dependent upon parental education levels. Despite the recent growth in pro-poor programs, the middle class has benefited disproportionally from social security transfers and are increasingly opting out from government services. Central to the region's prospects of continued progress will be its ability to harness the new middle class into a new, more inclusive social contract, where the better-off pay their fair share of taxes, and demand improved public services.
format	Publications & Research :: Publication
author	Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Messina, Julian Rigolini, Jamele López-Calva, Luis-Felipe Lugo, Maria Ana Vakis, Renos
author_facet	Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Messina, Julian Rigolini, Jamele López-Calva, Luis-Felipe Lugo, Maria Ana Vakis, Renos
author_sort	Ferreira, Francisco H.G.
title	Economic Mobility and the Rise of the Latin American Middle Class
title_short	Economic Mobility and the Rise of the Latin American Middle Class
title_full	Economic Mobility and the Rise of the Latin American Middle Class
title_fullStr	Economic Mobility and the Rise of the Latin American Middle Class
title_full_unstemmed	Economic Mobility and the Rise of the Latin American Middle Class
title_sort	economic mobility and the rise of the latin american middle class
publisher	Washington, DC: World Bank
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11858
_version_	1764418238919213056

Economic Mobility and the Rise of the Latin American Middle Class

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