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The unequal lag in Latin American schooling since 1900: follow the money

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2010

Peter H. Lindert
Peter H. Lindert*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, United States. [email protected]
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Abstract

Focusing on education–income anomalies, in which a richer country delivers less education than a poorer country, seems a promising way to harvest a part of the rich history that does not lend itself to econometrics. To test the chain of alleged causation from unequal power and wealth to poor schooling, one must follow the public money, or lack of it, in as many contexts as the data will allow. Public funding for mass schooling is the hitherto untested middle link in the chain. The key to Latin America’s poor schooling was the failure to supply tax money, not gender discrimination or any shortfall in market demand for skills. The most glaring anomalies were the Venezuelan and Argentine failures to supply the levels of tax support for mass schooling that their high income could have afforded.

Resumen

Este artículo estudia algunas irregularidades de la relación entre educación y renta, por la que los países ricos ofrecen menos educación que los pobres. Esta relación no parece encajar con la historia de los países ricos ni se presta a una comprobación econométrica. Para comprobar la cadena causal acreditada entre la desigualdad de poder o riqueza y baja escolarización, uno tiene que seguir el dinero público o la ausencia de éste en tantos contextos como sea posible. La financiación pública de la escolarización de masas aún no ha sido examinada en el eslabón medio en la cadena. La clave de la baja escolarización latinoamericana fue un problema de ingreso fiscal, no de discriminación de género o de un fallo de mercado en la demanda de mano de obra cualificada. Las irregularidades más flagrantes las encontramos en Venezuela y Argentina que fallaron en el nivel de apoyo fiscal a la escolarización de masas en relación con los ingresos medios disponibles.

Keywords

inequalityeducationpublic sectorLatin AmericaVenezuelaArgentinaN36I22desigualdadeducaciónsector públicoLatinoaméricaVenezuelaArgentina
Type
Articles/Artículos
Information
Revista de Historia Economica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History , Volume 28 , Special Issue 2: Special Issue on Latin American Inequality , September 2010 , pp. 375 - 405
Copyright
Copyright © Instituto Figuerola de Historia y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 2010

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