Educational Inequalities among Latin American Adolescents: Continuities and Changes over the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s

Denisse Gelber, University of Texas at Austin
Celia Hubert, University of Texas at Austin
Viviana Salinas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

This paper examines recent trends in educational stratification for Latin American adolescents growing up in three periods: the 1980s, during severe recession; the 1990s, a period of structural adjustments imposed by international organizations; and the late 2000s, when most countries experienced positive and stable growth. In addition to school enrollment and educational transitions, we examine the quality of education through enrollment in private schools. We use nationally representative household survey data from Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay. Our findings confirm the importance of macroeconomic conditions for inequalities in educational opportunity, suggesting important benefits brought up by the favorable conditions of the 2000s. However, our findings also call attention to increasing disadvantages associated with the quality of the education adolescents receive, suggesting the significance of the EMI framework and highlighting the value of examining the quality and the quantity of education in order to fully understand educational stratification in Latin America