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Empirical Approaches to Inequality of Opportunity: Principles, Measures, and Evidence

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  • Ramos, Xavi

    () (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

  • Van de gaer, Dirk

    () (Ghent University)

Abstract

We put together the different conceptual issues involved in measuring inequality of opportunity, discuss how these concepts have been translated into computable measures, and point out the problems and choices researchers face when implementing these measures. Our analysis identifies and suggests several new possibilities to measure inequality of opportunity. The approaches are illustrated with a selective survey of the empirical literature on income inequality of opportunity.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 6672.

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Length: 43 pages
Date of creation: Jun 2012
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6672

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Keywords: equality of opportunity; measurement; compensation; responsibility; effort; circumstances;

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References

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Paolo Brunori & Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Vito Peragine, 2013. "Inequality of Opportunity, Income Inequality and Economic Mobility: Some International Comparisons," Working Papers 284, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
  2. VAN DE GAER, Dirk & VANDENBOSSCHE, Joost & FIGUEROA, José Luis, 2012. "Children’s health opportunities and project evaluation: Mexico’s Oportunidades program," CORE Discussion Papers 2012015, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
  3. RAMOS, Xavier & VAN DE GAER, Dirk, 2012. "Empirical approaches to inequality of opportunity: principles, measures, and evidence," CORE Discussion Papers 2012026, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
  4. Aitor Calo Blanco & J. Ignacio García Pérez, 2012. "On the welfare loss caused by inequality of opportunity," Working Papers 12.12, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.

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