Credential Inflation and Productive Heterogeneity in the Paraguayan Economy

Abstract

Within the framework of the economic transformations characteristic of globalization and the associated world of work, this study was proposed for the purpose of analyzing and explaining the contradiction between the increase of the population with diplomas of the educational system in Paraguay and the reduced competitiveness of the labor force, that is to say, its low levels of competence, its low average remuneration, as well as its predominant insertion in branches of activity of low innovation and slow growth. The study has a descriptive quantitative cut, based on information from secondary sources (household surveys and national accounts). With the information analyzed, the characteristics of the productive structure were established during the period when greater educational access did not mechanically lead to increased access to formal employment and social welfare in the country. The main conclusion is that the contradiction between the mass education and the low average productivity of the economy is the basis of the unequal distribution of resources and opportunities in the Paraguayan social structure, with the main causes of exclusion and poverty persisting.