Who Gets Ahead in Mexico — and Why Most Don’t

In this episode of the Mexico Decoded Podcast, we explore why family background shapes income and opportunity far more in Mexico than in the United States, with Luis Monroy-Gómez-Franco, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

In Mexico, about 50% of a person’s income is determined by family background, compared to 35% in the U.S. As I explored in How Mexicans Get Rich, this makes upward mobility much harder and keeps privilege firmly in place.

To understand why mobility is so limited and how inequality is reproduced generation after generation, I’m joined Prof. Monroy-Gómez-Franco. Luis has studied these patterns in depth, and together we unpack what the data really says about who makes it to the top, and why so few ever do.

If you're curious, I highly recommend taking a look at two of his papers, “Stratification Economics in the Land of Persistent Inequalities” and “Shades of Social Mobiltiy”, as well as to his book “Por Una Cancha Pareja” (in Spanish).

Let’s get into it.