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Bérgolo, Marcelo

Are there ethnic inequality traps in education. Empirical evidence from Brazil and Chile

This study searches for suggestive evidence of an ethnic inequality trap in educational attainment in Brazil and Chile. The research aims to cover an existing gap in the literature on inequality traps and proposes an empirical approach to assess certain conditions which might imply its existence. The main results indicate that while average education and upward mobility have risen in both countries, ethnic disparities remain significant. In particular, the evidence is suggestive of an educational inequality trap for Afro-Brazilians, while the findings are less conclusive of a trap for indigenous individuals in Chile. These results reflect the need for targeted education policies for ethnic groups in two ways: compensation (or affirmative action) mechanisms to lower current inequality, and increasing demand and supply at higher educational levels to prevent the persistence of low level outcomes and disparities throughout the educational distribution.

Assessing the Predictive Power of Vulnerability Measures: Evidence from Panel Data for Argentina and Chile

This article carries out a validation exercise of vulnerability measures as predictorsof poverty at the aggregate and micro levels based on short and long term panel datafor Argentina and Chile. It then compares their performance to that of deprivationindicators. The main findings indicate that while vulnerability measures are goodpredictors of poverty in the aggregate, the same does not occur at household level.

Digging into the Channels of Bunching: Evidence from the Uruguayan Income Tax

Based on detailed administrative tax records, we implement a bunching design to explore how individual taxpayers respond to personal income taxation in Uruguay. We estimate a very modest elasticity of taxable income at the first kink point (0.06) driven by a combination of gross labour income and deductions responses. Taxpayers use personal deductions more intensively close to the kink point and underreport income to the tax authority. Our results suggest that the efficiency costs of taxation are not necessarily large in contexts characterised by limited deduction opportunities. Policy efforts should be directed at broadening the tax base and improving enforcement capacity.

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