IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rar/journl/0065.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Equality of capabilities: terminological innovation or a new approach to equal opportunity?

Author

Listed:
  • Elena Granaglia

Abstract

The principle of equality of capabilities developed by Sen and Nussbaum aims at providing a new conception of equality of opportunity, alternative to the major criteria so far formulated, and in the first place to the principle deriving from equality of resources. Recently, however, the innovative character of the Sen and Nussbaum principle has come under growing attack. Focusing on Sen’s version, the article first outlines the main features of the principle, and then goes on to single out and discuss some similarities with the other principles. The thesis is that, notwithstanding some similarities and various open problems, equality of capabilities represents an innovative distributive principle.

Suggested Citation

  • Elena Granaglia, 2007. "Equality of capabilities: terminological innovation or a new approach to equal opportunity?," QA - Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi-Doria, Associazione Rossi Doria, issue 4, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:rar:journl:0065
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Riviste.asp?IDArticolo=32712&Tipo=ArticoloPDF
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elster,Jon & Roemer,John E. (ed.), 1993. "Interpersonal Comparisons of Well-Being," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521457224.
    2. Anand, Paul & van Hees, Martin, 2006. "Capabilities and achievements: An empirical study," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 268-284, April.
    3. Chiappero-Martinetti, Enrica & Moroni, Stefano, 2007. "An analytical framework for conceptualizing poverty and re-examining the capability approach," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 360-375, June.
    4. Marc Fleurbaey, 2006. "Capabilities, Functionings and Refined Functionings," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 299-310.
    5. Amartya Sen, 2002. "Why health equity?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(8), pages 659-666, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Philippe Tessier & Josselin Thuilliez, 2018. "Does freedom make a difference?," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(8), pages 1189-1205, November.
    2. Van Ootegem, Luc & Spillemaeckers, Sophie, 2010. "With a focus on well-being and capabilities," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 384-390, June.
    3. Luc Ootegem & Elsy Verhofstadt, 2012. "Using Capabilities as an Alternative Indicator for Well-being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 106(1), pages 133-152, March.
    4. Sabina Alkire, 2015. "The Capability Approach and Well-Being Measurement for Public Policy," OPHI Working Papers ophiwp094.pdf, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    5. Eric French & Elaine Kelly & Richard Cookson & Carol Propper & Miqdad Asaria & Rosalind Raine, 2016. "Socio‐Economic Inequalities in Health Care in England," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 37, pages 371-403, September.
    6. Paul Anand & Jere R. Behrman & Hai-Anh H. Dang & Sam Jones, 2018. "Inequality of opportunity in education: Accounting for the contributions of Sibs, schools and sorting across East Africa," Working Papers 480, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    7. Martin Binder & Tom Broekel, 2011. "Applying a Non-parametric Efficiency Analysis to Measure Conversion Efficiency in Great Britain," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 257-281.
    8. Dolan, Paul & Edlin, Richard & Tsuchiya, Aki & Wailoo, Allan, 2007. "It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it: Characteristics of procedural justice and their importance in social decision-making," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 157-170, September.
    9. Majo, Maria Cristina & van Soest, Arthur, 2012. "Income and health care utilization among the 50+ in Europe and the US," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 28(4), pages 3-22.
    10. Leßmann, Ortrud, 2011. "Empirische Studien zum Capability Ansatz auf der Grundlage von Befragungen: Ein Überblick," UFZ Discussion Papers 4/2011, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    11. Oula Ben Hassine & Hela Bouras, 2022. "Fuzzy Measures of Monetary and Non-monetary Deprivations in Tunisia," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 12(4), pages 65-71, July.
    12. repec:dau:papers:123456789/13753 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Anand, Paul & Gray, Alastair & Liberini, Federica & Roope, Laurence & Smith, Ron & Thomas, Ranjeeta, 2015. "Wellbeing over 50," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 6(C), pages 68-78.
    14. Paul Anand & Laurence S. J. Roope & Anthony J. Culyer & Ron Smith, 2020. "Disability and multidimensional quality of life: A capability approach to health status assessment," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(7), pages 748-765, July.
    15. Yongqing Dong & Quheng Deng & Shaoping Li, 2022. "The Health Inequality of Children in China: A Regression-Based Decomposition Analysis," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(1), pages 137-159, February.
    16. Wende, Danny & Kopetsch, Thomas & Richter, Wolfram F., 2020. "Planning health care capacities with a gravity equation," Ruhr Economic Papers 888, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    17. 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.
    18. Awan, Masood Sarwar & Aslam, Muhammad Amir & Waqas, Muhammad, 2012. "Social Development Disparities among Districts of Punjab," MPRA Paper 36846, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Joanna Coast & Richard Smith & Paula Lorgelly, 2008. "Should the capability approach be applied in Health Economics?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(6), pages 667-670, June.
    20. Hamidreza Rabiei‐Dastjerdi & Stephen A. Matthews, 2021. "Who gets what, where, and how much? Composite index of spatial inequality for small areas in Tehran," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 191-205, February.
    21. McCarthy, David & Mikkola, Kalle & Thomas, Teruji, 2016. "Utilitarianism with and without expected utility," MPRA Paper 72578, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Capabilities; Resourcism; Sen; Equality of Opportunity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H10 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - General
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rar:journl:0065. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rossiea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.