Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/189507 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
Development Research Working Paper Series No. 02/2004
Publisher: 
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD), La Paz
Abstract: 
Poverty in Bolivia continues to be among the highest in Latin America despite decades of concerted national and international efforts to reduce it. Bolivia has meticulously followed the recommendations of the Washington consensus at the same time as external aid has been generous and foreign direct investment has boomed. Nevertheless, average productivity and incomes remain at the same low level as they were 50 years ago. This paper suggests that the failure of previous development policies is due to a lack of social mobility in the country. Without social mobility, there is little incentive for people to invest in human and physical capital, and without investment there cannot be productivity growth. In addition, the lack of social mobility implies an inefficient use of human capital, and it hinders the construction of efficient social mechanisms for redistribution and consumption smoothing over the life-cycle.
Subjects: 
Social Mobility
Development
Public Policy
Bolivia
JEL: 
E60
I32
J12
J13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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