Raymundo M. Campos-Vázquez

Víctor H. Delgado Barrera

Roberto Vélez-Grajales

Documento de trabajo CEEY no. 07 / 2020

This article documents several measures of intergenerational economic mobility in Mexico. We employ census data available for 1990 to 2015 that provides data on earnings. Since censuses do not link individuals over time, the empirical strategy follows a synthetic approach by matching individuals with synthetic family earnings by the state where they were born and their birth cohort. The aggregate estimate indicates an intergenerational elasticity (IGE) of 0.50 for Mexico, adjusted for cross-country comparison. From this perspective, intergenerational mobility is low in comparison with advanced economies. Results also suggest a higher intergenerational mobility for younger cohorts. For regional comparisons, estimates show that people born in southern Mexico are more likely to have a lesser degree of intergenerational mobility.