Ethnicity, Education, and Earnings in Bolivia and Guatemala

Abstract

Indigenous people will earn more if they get more schooling. Policy RsearchWod&ing peua disseminate the rindings of work in plogWSS and encourage the eschange of idcas among Bank ataffi'n$ allothers interestcd in developmentisuies.Thesepapers, distuibuted by theResearchAdvisory Staff,carry thenamesoftheauthors,reflect oly theirviews,andshould be used and cited accordingly.The findings, interpreations,and conclusions are the authors'own.They should not be auributed to the Worid Bank. its Board of Directors, its management, or any of its member countries.

The political economy of social exclusion, with implications for immigration policy

“…It is hypothesized that, among other factors, residential segregation plays a role in perpetuating these inequalities. Moreover, more closely related to this paper's theory is the argument that schooling is a major impediment to a more complete integration of minorities in several Latin American countries, such as Bolivia and Guatemala (on this see also Psacharopoulos, 1993). Specifically, using Spanish as the language of instruction makes education too costly for indigenous populations, a vast majority of which is concentrated in rural areas with difficulties of access to schooling.…”

Language and Ethnicity: Multiple Literacies in Context, Language Education in Guatemala

“…A few researchers presented statistics regarding indigenous and nonindigenous students in various schools, numbers of students who leave school (and return later), and the connection between literacy/educational attainment in the family and family socioeconomic status (Gallardo de Cano & Maduro, 1997;Lourié, 1982;PREAL, 2001;Psacharopoulos, 1993;Steele, 1994;VeraValderrama, 2000). However, the statistics do not provide consistent information regarding trends in various aspects in education over time due to the lack of consistent data collection (e.g., census-collection methods) which in turn affects the reliability and validity of the data.…”

Human capital, labour market outcomes, and horizontal inequality in Guatemala

“…Particularly relevant to this study is Steele (1994), which uses data from the 1989 National Socio-Demographic Survey (Encuesta Nacional Socio-Demografica -ENSD) to document inequalities between indigenous and ladino populations in terms of poverty, the distribution of public services, years of schooling, literacy, child labour, occupation, and income. Using the Oaxaca method, analysis suggests that a significant share of earnings differentials between indigenous and ladino workers cannot be attributed to differences in human capital (see also Psacharopoulos, 1993). For men, this is roughly half and for women, one-fourth -figures understood as upper bound estimates of discrimination (Steele, 1994, p. 125).…”