Rethinking the class structure in comparative format in the context of the heterogeneity processes of the labor market in Latin America and Europe

Abstract

The International comparative studies of social stratification and class mobility are based on class schemes designed for industrialized countries. One such scheme, the EGP scheme developed by Erikson and Goldthorpe, has become a standard in the field. The use of this scheme in other regions of the world, including Latin America, has been crucial for the comparative analysis. However, this scheme may not reflect heterogeneities in the prevailing labor relations in developing countries, where salaried and self-employment occupations are segmented into high and low productivity sectors, with unequal working conditions and remuneration. We propose an adaptation of the EGP scheme to take into account this heterogeneity. Based on this adaptation, subjected to various tests of coherence and empirical homologation, we use data from national household surveys in Latin American and European countries, characterize their class structures and analyze the association between class membership and living conditions. Our results indicate that this modified version of the EGP class scheme improves the characterizations of class structures, as well as our understanding of the structural foundations of poverty and income inequality in Latin America. For this we use household surveys, and a homogeneous codification of the uniform classifier of Occupations to be able to make the comparisons, along with harmonizing variables to develop the analysis.