Opportunities for the future? Social mobility of adolescents in Colombia

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study the main determinants of the schooling gap in adolescents in Colombia and their social mo- bility patterns from a regional perspective. The methodology entails estimating regressions of the schooling gap. Next, using the method proposed by Fields we estimate the importance of family background on the schooling gap. The results show that adolescents from households with more educated parents and higher income have lower educational gaps. In addition, the Caribbean Coast, Valle del Cauca and Antioquia, turn out to be the regions with lower social mobility