Reducing wealth inequality through evidence-based policies that expand access to education, professional trainings, career networks and more for marginalised groups.
-27.034663773424, -71.08154296875
Inequality in Chile has reached a 30-year high. But some people still manage to break through the class
ceiling. How do they do it?
Backed by the Julius Baer Foundation, the innovative Latin American research centre COES is striving to shed light on what enables social mobility in Chile – especially among historically marginalised groups – despite soaring levels of inequality. Based on in-depth interviews, the project is piecing together and analysing several hundred life stores of individuals who have climbed Chile’s socioeconomic ladder, as well as undertaking an at-scale countrywide qualitative survey of social mobility.
These include women in high-ranking positions, upwardly mobile indigenous people, young professionals and entrepreneurs working in the creative and tech economies, and those in liberal professions who have advanced their careers and changed milieus. The goal is to identify the ingredients of these ‘successful’ trajectories – such as supportive institutions, social policies, family and professional networks as well as personal qualities – in order to foster social mobility more broadly.
Quick facts
• Santiago de Chile, Arica (northern Chile) and Temuco (southern Chile)
• Project support: 2022-2025
• Grant amount: CHF 150,000 per year
• Fostering spaces for greater social mobility by dialoguing and negotiating with CEOs, company recruiters, university authorities and others based on project research.
From grim trends...
Macro-level trends in Chile point to worsening wealth inequality and worrying signs of downward mobility among middle-class households. The outlook seems bleak.
... to rays of hope.
More granular investigation of social mobility in Chile reveals cases of marginalised individuals and groups breaking through ceilings of class, gender, race, ethnicity, geography and more. These provide hope of building on such
successes by understanding their mechanisms.
For someone who has no assets... education is the only way out, you know? It was definitely education for me, because there was nothing else to hold on to. My choices were to become a footballer, a drug dealer or studying. Those were the only ways I saw a chance for some mobility, and I didn’t know how far I could move either. Luckily, I now have a stable job and I’m comfortable, and I can make certain economic decisions that have been enabled by my level of education.
OUTPUT
COES has shaped the Julius Baer Foundation’s understanding of social mobility with research briefings and by helping create a Wealth Inequality Initiative Glossary: wealth-inequality.net/glossary
OUTCOME
300 stories of social mobility and a countrywide quantitative study are being put together which will help identify mechanisms of success in overcoming marginalisation across generations.
HIGHLIGHT
Findings on social mobility will be presented at the international conference, 'The Future of Social Mobility', hosted by COES and the Julius Baer Foundation from December 3-4, 2025.
Pathways to more equality
• After a period of modest gains for the middle class in the 1990s and early 2000s, inequality has risen again in Chile in recent decades.
• The average income of the country’s top 10% is currently 27 times higher than the poorest 10%.
• Some families who previously achieved middle class status are now plagued by a ‘fear of falling’ back into the ranks of the working poor.
• Collaboration between the Julius Baer Foundation and COES centres on identifying what has enabled certain individuals and families to rise, against the odds, in Chile’s economy.
• The hope is to find ways of replicating the keys to successful social mobility – in terms of institutions, support mechanisms and policies – identified in study participants’ biographies.
Become a Changemaker
Make an impact that lasts a lifetime — discover opportunities at COES to donate, volunteer, work, and learn.
