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Measuring Inequality of Opportunity through Between-Group Inequality Components

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  • ABATEMARCO Antonio

Abstract

Opportunity egalitarians support rich-to-poor redistribution whenever this allows for the compensation of income disparities due to non-responsible choices (circum- stances). In this paper we investigate the measurement of opportunity inequality within Roemer's (1993) pragmatic theory where equally subgroup ranked individuals are assumed to be equally responsible. Given entropy-based, deprivation-based and welfaristic inequality decomposition procedures, we show that the between-group Gini index - obtained from the two-components decomposition (Dagum 1997) - is the only between-group inequality index satisfying the Pigou-Dalton principle of transfer as reformulated for opportunity egalitarianism.

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  • ABATEMARCO Antonio, 2008. "Measuring Inequality of Opportunity through Between-Group Inequality Components," IRISS Working Paper Series 2008-11, IRISS at CEPS/INSTEAD.
    • Handle: RePEc:irs:iriswp:2008-11
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    Cited by:

    1. Abatemarco, Antonio, 2016. "Doing rawls justice: Evidence from the PSID," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 10, pages 1-39.
    2. Philippe Van Kerm, 2013. "Generalized measures of wage differentials," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 465-482, August.
    3. Stéphane Mussard, 2010. "Pair-Based Decomposable Inequality Measures," Working Papers 10-15, LAMETA, Universtiy of Montpellier, revised Nov 2010.
    4. REITEL Bernard & SOHN Christophe & WALTHER Olivier, 2009. "Cross-border metropolitan integration in Europe (Luxembourg, Basel and Geneva)," IRISS Working Paper Series 2009-02, IRISS at CEPS/INSTEAD.
    5. Domenico Rossignoli, 2015. "Too many and too much? Special-interest groups and inequality at the turn of the century," Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Sociali, Vita e Pensiero, Pubblicazioni dell'Universita' Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, vol. 130(3), pages 337-366.
    6. Antonio Abatemarco & Elena Lagomarsino & Maria Russolillo, 2023. "Gender Pension Gap in EU Countries: A Between-Group Inequality Approach," Risks, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-15, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    inequality; opportunity; decomposition; measurement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

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