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Inequality of opportunity in adult health in Colombia

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  • Johanna Fajardo-Gonzalez

    (University of Minnesota)

Abstract

This paper measures inequality of opportunity in adult health in Colombia using the 2010 Living Standards and Social Mobility Survey, a rich dataset that provides unique information about individual childhood circumstances in that country. Dissimilarity and Gini-opportunity indexes are calculated to provide different measures of inequality of opportunity using a self-reported variable for health status. The Shapley-value decomposition is then used to estimate the contribution of early-life circumstances such as parental background, region of origin and ethnicity to inequality of opportunity. The findings suggest that 8 % to 10 % of the circumstance-driven opportunities distinctively enjoyed by those who are healthier should be redistributed or otherwise compensated in order to achieve equality of opportunity. Differences in household socio-economic status during childhood and parental educational attainment appear to be the most salient dimensions of inequality of opportunity in adult health.

Suggested Citation

  • Johanna Fajardo-Gonzalez, 2016. "Inequality of opportunity in adult health in Colombia," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(4), pages 395-416, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jecinq:v:14:y:2016:i:4:d:10.1007_s10888-016-9338-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s10888-016-9338-2
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    Cited by:

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    2. Davillas, Apostolos & Jones, Andrew M, 2020. "Ex ante inequality of opportunity in health, decomposition and distributional analysis of biomarkers," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    3. Ravi Kanbur, 2021. "Sustainable Development Goals and the Study of Economic Inequality," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(1), pages 3-11, March.
    4. Davillas, Apostolos & M. Jones, Andrew, 2020. "The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on inequality of opportunity in psychological distress in the UK," ISER Working Paper Series 2020-07, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    5. Rivera Trivino, Andrés Felipe, 2017. "Health opportunities in Colombia," Revista Lecturas de Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, CIE, issue 87, pages 125-164, March.
    6. Yan, Binjian & Chen, Xi & Gill, Thomas M., 2020. "Health inequality among Chinese older adults: The role of childhood circumstances," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    7. Enza Simeone, 2023. "Inequality in health status during the COVID-19 in the UK: does the impact of the second lockdown policy matter?," Working Papers 661, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    8. Yue Yu & Chengkui Liu, 2023. "Pre-market discrimination or post-market discrimination: research on inequality of opportunity for labor income in China," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(5), pages 2291-2313, May.
    9. Pérez-Mesa, David & Marrero, Gustavo A. & Darias-Curvo, Sara, 2021. "Child health inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa," MPRA Paper 108801, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Burlinson, Andrew & Davillas, Apostolos & Giulietti, Monica, 2023. "Socioeconomic Inequality in Low-Carbon Technology Adoption," IZA Discussion Papers 16114, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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