Today, we are pleased to present the first economic report on social indicators. Like our other economic reports, we have organized them into four sections, identifiable by the icons shown below.
What is a Rosario native like?
Rosario It is one of those cities that is proud of its origin. Rarely does a Rosario native define himself - or his fellow countrymen - as Santa Fe. What's more, the reference to the province seems strange. To our common sense, a Rosario native is someone who rarely pronounces all the words eses In one sentence, he is a leper or a scoundrel, and a bunch of stereotypes that we have created to recognize ourselves.
And just as stereotypes give us the advantage of quickly classifying the information that reaches us without raising serious doubts about its veracity, that ease sometimes becomes a disadvantage when we act on the basis of that generalization.
A stereotype functions as a heuristic, when an individual evaluates a specific attribute of a depicted object, replacing it with some other property of said object that is easier for him or her to interpret.
In this way, the costs that are avoided by being a quick response to the situation or problem that arises, reappear in the form of serious and systematic errors, which in theory are called biases.
In the first report on social indicators that we presented, we are far from answering that question. One difficulty is that information is available for an aggregate of localities and not just for the city of Rosario.
Indeed, the information provided by the Permanent Household Survey (EPH), and which is the basis for this report, refers to the population that lives in the Gran Rosario Chipboard (EGR).
According to the 2010 Census, the estimated population for the AGR is as shown in the following table:
Although the percentage of the population for the city of Rosario is 76.52%, after five years we cannot say with certainty that this proportion has been maintained and, above all, it cannot be said that the socio-economic characteristics of the remaining localities are similar to those presented by the population of Rosario, only on a smaller scale.
Thus, the initial question eludes us. According to the statistical information available, the best answer we can give is in reference to the typical population of the agglomeration. Let's give it a name, let's say agerosarins, and let's see what characteristics they present.
What is an Agerosarian like, then?
In matters of gender probably it is Woman, however, and by a very small margin it could also have been a man. It has between 25 to 45 years of age, and although she is not the head of the household, has a jobo. Maybe that is the main reason why I have some kind of medical coverage through social work. It is also likely that most of her life has been spent in the area, or even in the town where she was born. In fact, within the family structure of the home, she fulfills the daughter role.
As regards their quality of life, as measured by the type of dwelling and the services available, you probably live in a property that is connected to the network of running water, to the network of gas natural already the network of sewers.
Our typical agerosarina has completed her studies in public institutions, and was able to complete the high school, although he almost finished it; and that is a fact that should concern the rest of us Agerosarians.
What is observed regarding the educational level of our population?
There is an idea that is established in our society - which also has the particularity of being a hopeful idea - that is that it is expected that the older levels of study that a person has, the greater their will be. future income.
In the last slides of the report, referring to the level of education of the inhabitants of the AGR, attention is drawn to some points that are currently open to debate.
Our study shows that there is a clear correlation between education and income level. However, it should be noted that this reading does not imply in any way causalityIn other words, the fact that two phenomena develop in parallel does not imply that one is the cause of the other.
Taking education level and income level as variables, it could well be the case that there is a third cause that explains both. E.g., it could be postulated that intelligent individuals (with all the difficulties that come with the use and application of this term) manage to achieve high levels of education, as well as high levels of income.
But another hypothesis could also be used to explain the same thing: individuals who come from rich homes achieve a higher level of future income, due to the social capital that comes with belonging to that family, which also makes it easier for them to complete their university studies.
Regarding the latter, there is a wide literature that tries to identify the different sources that explain the performance of individuals regarding their education, which could be grouped under the title of economics of educationFortunately, there is already research with data from our country.
To give an example, in a study based on the 2009 PISA tests, by Marchionni, Pinto and Vazquez (2013), the authors argue that “inequality in (educational) performance is fundamentally explained by the unequal socioeconomic composition of students between schools.”
Ultimately, the point to be made is that - as a society - we still have a lot to learn about What factors explain better levels of education?, and what impact does this improvement have on other variables? The data we present in our report are only the first step in understanding the problem.
From the Observatory, we hope that in future works we can go further. For the moment, we invite you to read the Report on Social Indicators of the AGR, which will undoubtedly allow you to have a general overview of this and other problems in our region.