This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

Equality of Opportunity: Definitions and testable conditions, with an application to income in France

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
Arnaud Lefranc () (Robert Schuman CenterEuropean University Institute)
Nicolas Pistolesi () (THEMA, Université de Cergy-Pontoise)
Alain Trannoy () (EHESS, GREQAM IDEP)

Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

Abstract

We offer a model of equality of opportunity that encompasses different conceptions expressed in the public debate. In addition to circumstances whose effect on outcome should be compensated and effort which represents a legitimate source of inequality, we introduce a third factor, luck, that captures the non-responsibility factors whose impact on outcome should be even-handed for equality of opportunity to be satisfied. Then, we analyse how the various definitions of equality of opportunity can be empirically identified, given data limitations and provide testable conditions. Definitions and conditions resort to standard stochastic dominance tools. Lastly, we develop an empirical analysis of equality of opportunity for income acquisition in France over the period 1979-2000 which reveals that the degree of inequality of opportunity tends to decrease and that the risk of social lotteries appears very similar across the different groups of social origin.

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://www.u-cergy.fr/thema/repec/2006-13.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function:
Download Restriction: no

Publisher Info
Paper provided by THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise in its series THEMA Working Papers with number 2006-13.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length:
Date of creation: 2006
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:ema:worpap:2006-13

Contact details of provider:
Postal: 33, boulevard du port - 95011 Cergy-Pontoise Cedex
Phone: 33 1 34 25 60 63
Fax: 33 1 34 25 62 33
Email:
Web page: http://www.u-cergy.fr/thema
More information through EDIRC

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Lise Patureau).

Related research
Keywords: Equality of Opportunity; Income distribution; Luck; Stochastic dominance;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Thibault Gajdos & Eric Maurin, 2004. "Unequal Uncertainties and Uncertain Inequalities: An Axiomatic Approach," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00085940_v1, HAL. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Grawe, Nathan D., 2006. "Lifecycle bias in estimates of intergenerational earnings persistence," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 551-570, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Ronald Oaxaca, . "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets," Working Papers 396, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Hammond, Peter J, 1981. "Ex-ante and Ex-post Welfare Optimality under Uncertainty," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 48(191), pages 235-50, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Roland Benabou & Efe A. Ok, 2001. "Mobility as Progressivity: Ranking Income Processes According to Equality of Opportunity," NBER Working Papers 8431, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Kodde, David A & Palm, Franz C, 1986. "Wald Criteria for Jointly Testing Equality and Inequality Restriction s," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(5), pages 1243-48, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Roemer, John E. & Aaberge, Rolf & Colombino, Ugo & Fritzell, Johan & Jenkins, Stephen P. & Lefranc, Arnaud & Marx, Ive & Page, Marianne & Pommer, Evert & Ruiz-Castillo, Javier, 2003. "To what extent do fiscal regimes equalize opportunities for income acquisition among citizens?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(3-4), pages 539-565, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Samuel Bowles & Herbert Gintis, 2002. "The Inheritance of Inequality," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 3-30, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Van de Gaer, Dirk & Schokkaert, Erik & Martinez, Michel, 2001. "Three Meanings of Intergenerational Mobility," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(272), pages 519-37, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Alberto Alesina & George-Marios Angeletos, 2005. "Fairness and Redistribution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 960-980, September. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  11. Julian Betts & John Roemer, 2005. "Equalizing Opportunity for Racial and Socioeconomic Groups in the United States Through Educational Finance Reform," University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series 2005-14, Department of Economics, UC San Diego. [Downloadable!]
  12. Donal O'Neill & Olive Sweetman & Dirk van de gaer, 1999. "Equiality of Opportunity and Kernel Density Estimation: An Application to Intergenerational Mobility," Economics, Finance and Accounting Department Working Paper Series n950999, Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting, National University of Ireland - Maynooth. [Downloadable!]
  13. Machina, Mark J, 1982. ""Expected Utility" Analysis without the Independence Axiom," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(2), pages 277-323, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Ichino, Adrea & Rustichini, Aldo & Checchi, Daniele, 1996. "More Equal but Less Mobile?," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich.
  15. Chris Starmer, 2000. "Developments in Non-expected Utility Theory: The Hunt for a Descriptive Theory of Choice under Risk," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(2), pages 332-382, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Marc Fleurbaey & François Maniquet, 2006. "Compensation and responsibility," Working Papers halshs-00121367_v1, HAL. [Downloadable!]
  17. Daniele Checchi & Vitorocco Peragine, 2005. "Regional Disparities and Inequality of Opportunity: The Case of Italy," IZA Discussion Papers 1874, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  18. Gary Solon, 2002. "Cross-Country Differences in Intergenerational Earnings Mobility," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 59-66, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  19. Roemer, J.E., 1992. "A Pragmatic Theory of Responsibility for the Egalitarian Planner," Papers 391, California Davis - Institute of Governmental Affairs.
  20. Julian R. Betts & John E. Roemer, . "Equalizing educational opportunity through educational finance reform," Department of Economics 99-8, California Davis - Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  21. Peter A. Diamond, 1967. "Cardinal Welfare, Individualistic Ethics, and Interpersonal Comparison of Utility: Comment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75, pages 765. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  22. Beach, Charles M & Davidson, Russell, 1983. "Distribution-Free Statistical Inference with Lorenz Curves and Income Shares," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(4), pages 723-35, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  23. Corneo, Giacomo & Gruner, Hans Peter, 2002. "Individual preferences for political redistribution," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 83-107, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  24. Russell Davidson & Jean-Yves Duclos, 2000. "Statistical Inference for Stochastic Dominance and for the Measurement of Poverty and Inequality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(6), pages 1435-1464, November.
    Other versions:
  25. François Bourguignon & Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Marta Menendez, 2003. "Inequality of Outcomes and Inequality of Opportunities in Brasil," DELTA Working Papers 2003-24, DELTA (Ecole normale supérieure). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  26. Ben-Porath, Elchanan & Gilboa, Itzhak & Schmeidler, David, 1997. "On the Measurement of Inequality under Uncertainty," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 194-204, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  27. Alesina, Alberto & La Ferrara, Eliana, 2005. "Preferences for redistribution in the land of opportunities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(5-6), pages 897-931, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  28. Gabriela Schütz & Heinrich W. Ursprung & Ludger Woessmann, 2005. "Education Policy and Equality of Opportunity," IZA Discussion Papers 1906, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  29. Valentino Dardanoni & Antonio Forcina, 1999. "Inference for Lorenz curve orderings," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 2(1), pages 49-75.
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Jacques Silber & Olivier Giovannoni & Amedeo Spadaro, 2007. "Inequality of Life Chances and the Measurement of Social Immobility," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_513, Levy Economics Institute, The. [Downloadable!]
  2. Claudia Biancotti & Giovanni D'Alessio, 2008. "Values, inequality and happiness," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 669, Bank of Italy, Economic Research Department. [Downloadable!]
  3. Juan Rodríguez, 2008. "Partial equality-of-opportunity orderings," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 435-456, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Vito Peragine & Laura Serlenga, 2007. "Higher Education and Equality of Opportunity in Italy," IZA Discussion Papers 3163, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? You too can volunteer for RePEc, for example by providing information about publications in your institution.

This page was last updated on 2009-10-22.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.