With moderate but sustained economic growth and generally declining inequality, the 2000s were a good decade for Latin America. Moderate poverty fell from roughly 40% to 30% of the population. Economic mobility powered a perceived increase in the ranks of the Latin American middle class. But who, exactly, belongs to that middle class? How much has it really grown? How much economic mobility do these countries really display? Drawing on a unique combination of data sets - income and consumption distributions, test scores, parental characteristics, personal beliefs and attitudes - this volume...

Tras decadas de estancamiento, la poblacion de clase media en America Latina y el Caribe ha aumentado en un 50% de aproximadamente 100 millones de personas en 2003 a 150 millones (o un 30% de la poblacion del continente) en 2009. Durante este periodo, el porcentaje de la poblacion pobre disminuyo notablemente, del 44% al 30%. _La movilidad economica y el crecimiento de la clase media en America Latina_ analiza la naturaleza, los determinantes y las posibles consecuencias de este notable proceso de transformacion social. Los autores proponen una original definicion de la clase media, hecha a...

One out of every five Latin Americans or around 130 million people have never known anything but poverty, subsisting on less than US$4-a-day throughout their lives. These are the regions chronically poor, who have remained so despite unprecedented inroads against poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean since the turn of the century. Left Behind: Chronic Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean takes a closer look at the region's entrenched poor, who and where they are, and how existing policies need to change in order to effectively assist them. The book shows significant variations of...