The Role of Universities in Intergenerational Social Mobility: Examining Mobility at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil (UFPE)

This paper analyzes social mobility as realized by students of a high quality public flagship university in Brazil, the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), applying the methodology of Chetty et al. 2017 in the paper... [ view full abstract ]

This paper analyzes social mobility as realized by students of a high quality public flagship university in Brazil, the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), applying the methodology of Chetty et al. 2017 in the paper "Mobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility".   Intergenerational income mobility is analyzed using the family income of students matriculating to the university in 2005-2006 and individual earnings 8-9 years later.  Upward mobility is defined as the percentage of students who attain the highest quintile of individual earnings among those who matriculated from the lowest income families.  The mobility index for UFPE is compared to public flagship and private universities in the United States as calculated by Chetty et al. (2017).  While these are non-causal estimates they nonetheless suggest that public universities can play a key role in facilitating upward social mobility in Brazil.