Aspirations, Personal Traits and Neighborhood Environment

This study analyzes the factors that determine aspirations’ formation in young people. Using the Mexican Social Mobility Survey database, enriched with geographical and geostatistical information regarding neighborhood’s accessibility and aesthetic, we estimated generalized ordered probit models to assess the effects on income and educational aspirations of young people of sociodemographic variables, cognitive and non-cognitive skills, urban environment characteristics and accessibility to relevant opportunities. Our results point out that gender, skin color, cognitive and non-cognitive intelligence, household´s wealth, and parents’ expectations for their children are related with the children’s own income and schooling expectations. Also, having a better urban environment and better access to employment opportunities are related with higher income aspirations