A partir de una definición de clase media que incluye a personas con baja probabilidad de caer en pobreza, este artículo presenta algunas tendencias para América Latina. El porcentaje de personas en clase media ha aumentado de 21.9% en 2000 a 34.3% en 2012, y desde el 2009 el tamaño de la clase media es mayor que el porcentaje de personas en pobreza. No obstante, formar parte de la clase media en América Latina sigue siendo una posición privilegiada. Los grupos en pobreza * Palabras clave: clase media, América Latina, pobreza, vulnerabilidad. Clasificación JEL: O1, I32. Artículo recibido el 10 de marzo de 2014 [traducción del inglés de Karina Azanza, Beatriz Meza y Brian McDougall]. Este artículo se basa en investigación realizada por López-Calva con diversos coautores. Además de los que firman el presente, se utilizaron trabajos conjuntos con Dagmar Hertova, Jamele Rigolini y Florencia Torche. La mayoría de estos estudios formaron parte de la preparación de Ferreira et al. (2013), quizá el trabajo más completo publicado recientemente sobre el tema de movilidad econó-mica y clase media en América Latina. Las ideas expresadas en este artículo se beneficiaron de valiosos comentarios por parte de Paloma Anós-Casero, Augusto de la Torre, Nancy Birdsall, François Bour-Bourguignon, Francisco Ferreira, Rebeca Grynspan, Peter Lanjouw, Santiago Levy, Nora Lustig, Carlos Silva Jáuregui y de todo el equipo del informe mencionado, elaborado en la oficina del Economista Jefe para América Latina y el Caribe del Banco Mundial. Asimismo, deseamos externar nuestro agradecimiento a los participantes de la 15ª reunión de LACEA celebrada en Medellín, por sus útiles comentarios. ** Luis F. López-Calva (lflopezcalva@worldbank.org) es economista líder y asesor regional en temas de pobreza para la región de Europa y Asia Central del Banco Mundial; Guillermo Cruces (gcruces@ cedlas.org) es subdirector

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Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but IZA takes no institutional policy positions. The IZA research network is committed to the IZA Guiding Principles of Research Integrity. The IZA Institute of Labor Economics is an independent economic research institute that conducts research in labor economics and offers evidence-based policy advice on labor market issues. Supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation, IZA runs the world's largest network of economists, whose research aims to provide answers to the global labor market challenges of our time. Our key objective is to build bridges between academic research, policymakers and society. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author.