Some of these assets, such as a certain degree of emotional maturity, development of cognitive abilities and social skills, are already put to use in the early years of life. But it is during adolescence and youth that people reach crucial junctures. On the basis of assets already accumulated they must choose between behaviours that lead to different paths to adulthood. Each one of these “emancipation paths” is paved with a series of decisions as to whether to continue school and when to enter the labour market, start a family, set up an autonomous household and have children.6 For society as a whole, the earlier in the life cycle that the different emancipation paths branch out, the more likely the social divides are to widen.