Parental Wealth Effects on Living Standards and Asset Holdings: Results from Chile

This paper examines aspects of the replication of inequality across generations and attempts to assess the extent to which parental resources influence the life chances and living standards of adult children. The data come from a survey of 4,400 households in Chile that focused on parental resources and outcomes in children's lives. The results reveal several pathways by which parental resources affect children's economic well-being. In particular, the living standard outcome measures are influenced indirectly, through parental investments in education and earnings capacity, whereas the wealth holdings of families are largly impacted directly, through transfers of parental assets.Chile, wealth, intergenerational transfers, stratification

Spatial Inequality, Migration and Economic Growth in Chile

Between 1975 and 2000, annual per-capita GDP in Chile grew at 5%. Yet, regions did not benefit equally: poverty declined significantly in all regions but regional income inequality remained stagnant. We found that convergence in per-capita income and prodMigration, economic growth, convergence, regional analysis

Is There Such a Thing As Middle Class Values? Class Differences, Values, and Political Orientations in Latin America - Working Paper 286

Middle class values have long been perceived as drivers of social cohesion and growth. In this paper we investigate the relation between class (measured by the position in the income distribution), values, and political orientations using comparable values surveys for six Latin American countries. We find that both a continuous measure of income and categorical measures of income-based class are robustly associated with values. Both income and class tend to display a similar association to values and political orientations as education, although differences persist in some important dimensions. Overall, we do not find strong evidence of any “middle class particularism”: values appear to gradually shift with income, and middle class values lay between the ones of poorer and richer classes. If any, the only peculiarity of middle class values is moderation. We also find changes in values across countries to be of much larger magnitude than the ones dictated by income, education and individual characteristics, suggesting that individual values vary primarily within bounds dictated by each societyMiddle class, income, values, political orientations

Is there such thing as middle class values ? Class differences, values and political orientations in Latin America

Middle class values have long been perceived as drivers of social cohesion and growth. This paper investigates the relation between class (measured by position in the income distribution), values, and political orientations using comparable values surveys for six Latin American countries. The analysis finds that both a continuous measure of income and categorical measures of income-based class are robustly associated with values. Both income and class tend to display a similar association to values and political orientations as education, although differences persist in some important dimensions. Overall, there is no strong evidence of any"middle class particularism": values appear to gradually shift with income, and middle class values are between the ones of poorer and richer classes. If any, the only peculiarity of middle class values is moderation. The analysis also finds changes in values across countries to be of much larger magnitude than the ones dictated by income, education, and individual characteristics, suggesting that individual values vary primarily within bounds dictated by each society.Inequality,Economic Theory&Research,Social Inclusion&Institutions,Labor Policies,Access&Equity in Basic Education

The Raman fingerprint of rhombohedral graphite

Multi-layer graphene with rhombohedral stacking is a promising carbon phase possibly displaying correlated states like magnetism or superconductivity due to the occurrence of a flat surface band at the Fermi level. Recently, flakes of thickness up to 17 layers were tentatively attributed ABC sequences although the Raman fingerprint of rhombohedral multilayer graphene is currently unknown and the 2D resonant Raman spectrum of Bernal graphite not understood. We provide a first principles description of the 2D Raman peak in three and four layers graphene (all stackings) as well as in Bernal, rhombohedral and an alternation of Bernal and rhombohedral graphite. We give practical prescriptions to identify long range sequences of ABC multi-layer graphene. Our work is a prerequisite to experimental non-destructive identification and synthesis of rhombohedral graphite.Comment: 18 pages, 5 pages article + 13 pages supplemental materia

Deserción Escolar y Trabajo Juvenil: ¿Dos Caras de una Misma Decisión?

En Chile, prácticamente todos los niños asisten a la escuela hasta la edad de 13 años. Sin embargo, de allí en adelante comienza un proceso de deserción que es el objeto de estudio de este trabajo. Se estudiará el grupo de edad de 14 a 17 años, que debiera asistir a la educación media. En dichas edades un 10% de la población no asiste a la escuela (dicho porcentaje va de 4% a los 14 años a 16% a los 17 años). Estudiaremos las decisiones de desertar o asistir y la de participar en la fuerza laboral conjuntamente, en parte con la intención de determinar si son como dos caras de un mismo proceso de decisión. Los jóvenes que desertan del sistema educacional, no sólo tienen como opción trabajar en una empresa, sino también hacerlo en la casa, o permanecer inactivos. En efecto, sólo un 44% de los que desertaron en 1996 se incorporaron a la fuerza de trabajo. Este trabajo, como otros trabajos empíricos para otros países, encuentra que cambios en el ingreso tienen efectos marginales muy pequeños sobre las decisiones de desertar y trabajar. Se concluye que efectivamente es necesario analizar conjuntamente la decisión de estudiar, o desertar y la de trabajar. En muchos aspectos ambas decisiones pueden considerarse dos caras de un mismo proceso de decisión, no lo son completamente ya que hay jóvenes que desertan y no trabajan en el mercado, ya que se quedan en el hogar.

Income Distribution In Chile, 1987-2006: Analysis And Policy Considerations

The Chilean Economy has experienced substantial changes in last quarter century: The GDP per capita almost duplicated, inflation dropped significantly and real wages improved substantially. The economy opened to international trade and markets were liberalized and diversified. However, income concentration, as measured by the Gini coefficient, has remained extremely high at about 55%. Based on the large and nation-wide representative CASEN survey, this paper studies trends in income distribution in Chile between 1987 and 2006 at both the household and the individual level. The paper analyses ten stylized facts such as the high and persistent income concentration, the substantial impact of the wealthiest percentiles on the income distribution and the high variability of income distribution across regions. The study finds that inequality may have declined from 2003 to 2006. Finally, the paper presents a statistical model accounting for inequality at the regional level. The model suggests that the association between economic activity at the regional level and inequality follows an inverted-U shape consistent with the Kuznets curve. It also suggests that growing educational attainment contributes to reducing inequality but other demographic factors (urbanization, reduction of household size) may have the opposite effect, resulting in a stable Gini coefficient over time.