NTA2020 Bucheli

Global Meeting on Population and the Generational Economy, August 2020

Presentation: Marisa Bucheli and Cecilia Gonzalez, Investment in human capital by socio-economic status in Uruguay

Abstract

In this work we analyze investment in human capital (education and health) in the population under age 21 by socioeconomic status (SES). We use the NTA system estimations for Uruguay 2013.

We classify the population in four SES groups based on the education attainment of the household head.

We find that children and young people of the Low SES group require 2.6 times more resources than the ones generated by the working age Low SES group; this ratio is 1 for the High group. These results highlight that the role of public and private transfers is not the same for all groups. Indeed, 40% of the aggregate life cycle deficit of children and young people of the Low group is funded by public transfers whereas children and young people of Medium High and High groups are net public contributors.

The positive relation of human capital investment in children and SES is partially related with coverage. In the case of education, most part of the different investment between SES groups is due to differences in school drop-out and repetition. In the case of health care, coverage is almost universal and does not play an important role in SES gaps. But the per child investment increases with SES because of the private component.

File: NTA2020 Bucheli

Paper: NTA2020 paper Bucheli

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