Unequal But Fluid: Social Mobility in Chile in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

A major finding in comparative mobility research is the high similarity across countries and the lack of association between mobility and other national attributes, with one exception: higher inequality seems to be associated with lower mobility. Evidence for the mobility-inequality link is, however, inconclusive, largely because most mobility studies have been conducted in advanced countries with relatively similar levels of inequality. This article introduces Chile to the comparative project. As the 10th most unequal country in the world, Chile is an adjudicative case. If high inequality results in lower mobility, Chile should be significantly more rigid than its industrialized peers. This hypothesis is disproved by the analysis. Despite vast economic inequality, Chile is as fluid, if not more so, than the much more equal industrialized nations. Furthermore, there is no evidence of a decline in mobility as the result of the increase in inequality during the market-oriented transformation of the country in the 1970s and 1980s. Study of the specific mobility flows in Chile indicates a significant barrier to long-range downward mobility from the elite (signaling high “elite closure”), but very low barriers across nonelite classes. This particular mobility regime is explained by the pattern, not the level, of Chilean inequality-high concentration in the top income decile, but significantly less inequality across the rest of the class structure. The high Chilean mobility is, however, largely inconsequential, because it takes place among classes that share similar positions in the social hierarchy of resources and rewards. The article concludes by redefining the link between inequality and mobility.

Intergenerational income and educational mobility in urban Chile

“…however, we find also that intergenerational mobility is substantially lower at the top of fathers' income distribution. While this may be an expected pattern in other countries, this evidence is consistent with recent findings of intergenerational occupational mobility for Chile by Torche (2005), who reports a high degree of intergenerational persistence in occupations associated with high social status compared with a variety of other countries. It is tempting to propose, as hypothesis awaiting explicit research that this findings may be associated with Chile's particular income distribution, known to be quite egalitarian within the bottom 80 to 90 percent of the population, but relatively unequal for the country as a whole as a consequence of a high concentration of income in the top centiles of the distribution.…”

“…In particular, Torche (2005) finds that Chile exhibits a high level of persistence in the occupations with highest social status in compassion with the international evidence, but a significant degree of mobility in the remaining occupations. As a hypothesis waiting for research, this converging evidence may be associated with Chile's particular income distribution, characterized by an unusually large share of the national income being held by the top decile or so of the population, the remaining part of the population being fairly egalitarian 19 .…”

Exclusividad Y Fragmentación: Los Perfiles Culturales De La Clase Media en Chile

“…de estudios, provenientes tanto de la sociología como de la historia, que se ha centrado, por un lado, en su carácter urbano y su crecimiento en función del empleo público (Filgueira y Geneletti, 1981;Martínez y Tironi, 1985;León y Martínez, 2001;Salazar y Pinto, 1999-2002Barozet y Espinoza, 2008;Candina, 2009), y por otro, de forma complementaria, en la medición de la clase media a partir de los ingresos y la ocupación (León y Martínez, 2001;Torche y Wormald, 2004;Torche, 2005;Franco et al, 2007). A este respecto, en el caso chileno, los estudios que adoptan la perspectiva cultural han sido enfáticos en mostrar "la fuerte dispersión y heterogeneidad de experiencias sociales observables en el seno de un mismo grupo social" (Araujo y Martucelli, 2011) como es la clase media.…”

Una clasificación de clases para la sociedad chilena

“…Esta alta desigualdad sugiere limitadas oportunidades de movilidad intergeneracional, es decir, una fuerte asociación entre el origen social y la posición actual de las personas. El actual nivel de movilidad en Chile es una pregunta empírica, que investigadores han empezado a responder recientemente (Núñez y Risco, 2004;Torche y Wormald, 2004, Torche, 2005.…”