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Intergenerational Influences of Wealth in Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Florencia Torche  and
Seymour Spilerman
Florencia Torche
Affiliation:
New York University
Seymour Spilerman
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Abstract

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Using the 2006 Mexican Social Mobility Survey, this article evaluates the influence of parental wealth on several outcomes of adult children, including educational attainment, consumption level, asset holdings, home ownership, and home value. Three main findings emerge from the analysis. First, parental wealth is a strong determinant of educational attainment, net of the standard indicators of socioeconomic advantage. Furthermore, the influence of parental wealth appears to be stronger among the most disadvantaged children—those with low cultural capital residing in rural areas. Second, the mechanism of parental influence on adult children's economic well-being differs depending on the outcome: in the case of consumption level, the influence is largely indirect, mediated by offspring's human capital, while the opposite is true for children's asset holdings, where a direct transfer of resources predominates. Third, access to homeownership is only weakly stratified by economic resources, but parental wealth significantly affects home value. The findings here highlight the critical but largely neglected impact of wealth on inequality and mobility in Latin America.

Resumen

Resumen

Este artículo examina la influencia de la riqueza de los padres en el logro educacional, nivel de bienestar económico, riqueza y acceso a la vivienda de sus hijos en México. El análisis indica que la riqueza de los padres es un importante determinante del logro educacional de sus hijos, neto de otros indicadores de recursos económicos. La influencia de la riqueza paterna es mayor para las familias más desfavorecidas—aquellas que viven en áreas rurales y que tienen bajo capital cultural. El análisis indica además que el mecanismo de influencia de la riqueza paterna en el bienestar económico de los hijos varía según la dimensión investigada. En el caso del nivel de consumo de los hijos, la influencia es indirecta, enteramente mediada por la formación de capital humano. En cambio, la evidencia sugiere una transferencia directa de recursos en el caso de la riqueza de los hijos. Finalmente, el acceso a la vivienda es relativamente universal en México, pero el valor de la vivienda a la que las familias pueden acceder esta fuertemente influido por los recursos paternos. Estos resultados destacan la importancia de la riqueza como un mecanismo central de desigualdad y movilidad en America Latina.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , 2009 , pp. 75 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by the Latin American Studies Association

Footnotes

The Mexican Social Mobility Survey used in this article was funded by the Fundación Esru. The authors would like to thank Herman van de Werfhorst for helpful comments.

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