Inequality of opportunities at early ages: evidence from Chile
Author
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Contreras Guajardo, Dante
Author
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Puentes Encina, Esteban
Admission date
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2018-06-14T13:58:38Z
Available date
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2018-06-14T13:58:38Z
Publication date
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2017
Cita de ítem
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The Journal of Development Studies, 2017 Vol. 53 (10), 1748–1764
es_ES
Identifier
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10.1080/00220388.2016.1262025
Identifier
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https://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/148875
Abstract
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This paper examines inequality of opportunity for Chilean children starting from an early age. It
uses a psychometric test designed to assess children’s receptive vocabulary (PPVT), height, and weight as
opportunity measures. We consider traditional circumstances such as parental income and educational level, but
improve on the previous literature including mother’s cognitive skills in our assessment. Our results indicate that
Chilean children do not exhibit significant differences in height or weight either as newborns or at two to
four years old. Nevertheless, there is evidence of inequality of opportunities for vocabulary skills. Maternal
cognitive ability is the greatest contributor. Finally, the evidence also suggests that inequality of opportunity on
vocabulary skills increases with age.