Ethnic Inequality in Mexican Education: Social Origins, State Interventions and Intergenerational Mobility

Mathew J. Creighton, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
David Post, Pennsylvania State University

We assess ethnic inequality in Mexican education over six decades. Using the first wave of the Mexican Family Life Survey, which includes information from respondents and their siblings (living and deceased), we construct six, ten-year cohorts including individuals born between 1930 to 1989. Using a multi-level approach, which allows us to account for individual- and family-level characteristics, we assess differences in the likelihood that indigenous and non-indigenous Mexicans make each of three distinct educational transitions: 1) into primary school, 2) from primary school to lower-secondary school, and 3) from lower-secondary school to upper-secondary school. We find that the indigenous disadvantage in terms of entering primary school was eliminated by recent cohorts. However, the indigenous disadvantage persists for entry into lower-secondary school, despite overall improvements in the probability of successfully transitioning.