Our main finding is that the relative importance of dropout during LS age declined from 38 to 25 percent during the 2000s, while the relative share of USE age dropout increased from 43 to 58 percent –dropout in transition between LS and USE remained fairly stable between 17 and 19 percent. This illustrates the rise in the importance of USE dropout throughout the region and justifies recent concerns about the USE level. On average, 25 percent of all dropouts observed in the region occur during LS ages, 17 percent are observed in the transition from LS to USE age, while the largest proportion of 58 percent occurs during USE ages (Table 2).

Using the differences in the proportions of dropout at different stages as reference we divide countries into three groups by using data from Cohort 4 (cutoffs are set by identifying concentrations of countries around similar patterns) –a similar pattern emerges when using Cohort 3 as reference.

Honduras, Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica are classified as countries with _early_ dropout, since they present the largest shares of individuals that exit school during LS ages (reaching levels between 32 and 45 percent), while relatively lower proportions (of less than half) of all dropout occurs during USE age. Bolivia, El Salvador, República Bolivariana de Venezuela and Mexico are classified as countries with significant dropout in _transition_ from LS to USE ages. In these cases, atypically high proportions of between one fourth and one third of all dropout occur precisely during the stage when individuals in Cohort 4 evolve from LS exit age to USE entry age –Peru also shows high proportions of dropout in transition, although the proportion observed in the initial LS stage is even greater, which is why it is classified as “early dropout.” Finally, Paraguay, Brazil, Chile, Panama, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Argentina and Uruguay are classified in the group of countries where most of the dropout rate is observed later during USE age. In these countries of _late_ dropout on average 70 percent of those exiting school do so at USE age –Bolivia also shows a high proportion of 61 percent, but it is also the country with the highest share of dropout in transition so it is classified in the second group.

By examining cohort trajectories using these classifications (in the same way as explained in Section 1), several interesting comparisons across estimate age, cohort, and time effects emerge (Figure 6). (i) In the case of age effects (Panel A), countries with early dropout generally have the lowest attendance rates at all ages, followed by those classified as having high shares of dropout in transition. Additionally, higher proportions remain in school to around age 25 in the late drop out group. (ii) With respect to cohort effects (Panel B), there is a more pronounced positive trend for countries in the early dropout group, especially for cohorts born around 1985. The same holds true for countries with high shares of dropout in transition. For late dropout countries, cohort effects are much more modest, which suggests a generational convergence in school enrollment across the region. (iii) With respect to time effects, while at the regional level these effects are not apparent (Figure 5) for the early dropout countries, there is an important negative time effect in years before 2000 (Panel C). These countries in general register lower incomes, so negative macroeconomic conditions such as those observed during the late 1980s and 1990s decades could 11