#242 Distributional Mobility in Latin America: Evidence and Implications for Public Policy

By Markos J. Mamalakis, Anders J. Danielson, David J. Hojman, and Fernando Medina

From the Preface

These papers were prepared as part of a joint project between the Latin American Program of the Wilson Center and the Department of Economics, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, on Distributional Mobility in Latin America: Evidence and Implications for Public Policy.

The invited papers in this publication by Markos J. Mamalakis, Anders J. Danielson, David E. Hojman, and Fernando Medina, all of whom are experts on Latin America, are original or revised versions of papers presented at a conference on "Distributional Mobility in Latin America: Evidence and Implications for Public Policy" held at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, on October 15, 1998. This conference was jointly organized by Markos J. Mamalakis, Professor of Economics, the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and Joseph S. Tulchin, Director, Latin American Program, the Woodrow Wilson Center.

The aim of the project and the related conference was to highlight the importance of the neglected issue of distributional mobility in understanding the roots, nature, and corrective policy implications of inequality, poverty, exclusion and stagnation in Latin America. The message emerging from this project and conference is that without better statistics and improved understanding of the multiple dimensions of distributional mobility, strategies to promote growth, alleviate poverty and reduce inequality are likely to remain flawed.