Schools, circumstances and inequality of opportunities in Chile

The equality of opportunity approach establishes that welfare inequalities emerge from differences in individual efforts and circumstances of origin. However, observable data on adults’ childhood circumstances are usually lacking. To identify these, we take advantage of the Chilean school system implemented in 1981, which instituted three types of school: public, private-voucher and private-paid schools clearly differentiated according to the children’s socioeconomic background. Using longitudinal data, parametric and nonparametric techniques, our main finding suggest that there is a substantial impact of childhood circumstances, captured by the school type, on the wage rate: attending private-voucher or private-paid schools systematically increases Chileans’ wages.