IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eti/dpaper/13097.html

Inequality of Opportunity in Japan: A behavioral genetic approach

Author

Listed:
  • Shinji YAMAGATA
  • Makiko NAKAMURO
  • Tomohiko INUI

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which the inequality of opportunity exists in Japan, using a classical twin design. Participants were 1,006 working, male twins (738 identical and 268 fraternal twins; age 20–60) recruited via a web-based survey. Participants responded to the questions of academic achievement at the ninth grade, years of education, and annual income. Univariate genetic analyses revealed that individual differences in each of the three variables are substantially influenced by the following factors: genetic (27%–35%), family environment (34%–47%), and individual-specific environment (26%–30%). Gene-environment interaction analyses revealed that genetic and environmental etiologies of education and income differ across age/cohort; for education, genetic influences are weaker and family environmental influences are stronger in the older age/cohort, whereas for income, the former is stronger and the latter is weaker for the older age/cohort. Finally, multivariate genetic analyses revealed that family environmental factors unrelated with academic achievement exert strong influences on income, in part, via education. These results suggest that inequality of opportunity exists among Japanese males even when genetic influences are controlled for. This paper discusses the need for future research on the inequality of opportunity, using a genetically informative design.

Suggested Citation

  • Shinji YAMAGATA & Makiko NAKAMURO & Tomohiko INUI, 2013. "Inequality of Opportunity in Japan: A behavioral genetic approach," Discussion papers 13097, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    • Handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:13097
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rieti.go.jp/jp/publications/dp/13e097.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jo Blanden, 2013. "Cross-Country Rankings In Intergenerational Mobility: A Comparison Of Approaches From Economics And Sociology," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 38-73, February.
    2. Ken Yamada, 2010. "Family Background and Economic Outcomes in Japan," Working Papers 26-2010, Singapore Management University, School of Economics.
    3. Anh T. Le & Paul W. Miller & Wendy S. Slutske & Nicholas G. Martin, 2011. "Opportunity and Educational Outcomes in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 87(s1), pages 125-135, September.
    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. Diogo G. C. Britto & Alexandre Fonseca & Paolo Pinotti & Breno Sampaio & Lucas Warwar, 2022. "Intergenerational Mobility in the Land of Inequality," CESifo Working Paper Series 10004, CESifo.
    2. Jo Blanden, 2019. "Intergenerational income persistence," World of Labour, LISER, pages 176-176, January.
    3. Bernt Bratsberg & Simen Markussen & Oddbjørn Raaum & Knut Røed & Ole Røgeberg, 2023. "Trends in Assortative Mating and Offspring Outcomes," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(651), pages 928-950.
    4. Timothy Smeeding, 2013. "GINI DP 89: On the relationship between income inequality and intergenerational mobility," GINI Discussion Papers 89, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    5. Ricard Grebol & Margarita Machelett & Jan Stuhler & Ernesto Villanueva, 2025. "Assortative Mating, Inequality, and Rising Educational Mobility in Spain," Papers 2512.22848, arXiv.org.
    6. Plante, Charles & Lassoued, Rim & Phillips, Peter W.B., 2017. "The Social Determinants of Cognitive Bias: The Effects of Low Capability on Decision Making in a Framing Experiment," SocArXiv u62cx, Center for Open Science.
    7. Chong Lu, 2022. "The effect of migration on rural residents’ intergenerational subjective social status mobility in China," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3279-3308, October.
    8. Marie Connolly & Catherine Haeck, 2024. "Intergenerational income mobility trends in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(1), pages 5-26, February.
    9. Neidhöfer, Guido & Serrano, Joaquín & Gasparini, Leonardo, 2018. "Educational inequality and intergenerational mobility in Latin America: A new database," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 329-349.
    10. Markussen, Simen & Røed, Knut, 2017. "Egalitarianism under Pressure: Toward Lower Economic Mobility in the Knowledge Economy?," IZA Discussion Papers 10664, IZA Network @ LISER.
    11. Catherine Haeck & Pierre Lefebvre, 2020. "The Evolution of Cognitive Skills Inequalities by Socioeconomic Status across Canada," Working Papers 20-04, Research Group on Human Capital, University of Quebec in Montreal's School of Management.
    12. Vera Tolstova, 2021. "Marital Sorting and Cross-Country Differences in Intergenerational Earnings Persistence," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp680, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    13. OESCH Daniel & LIPPS Oliver & SHAHBAZIAN Roujman & BIHAGEN Erik & MORRIS Katy, 2024. "Occupational earning potential: A new measure of social hierarchy applied to Europe," JRC Working Papers on Labour, Education and Technology 2024-06, Joint Research Centre.
    14. Moshe Justman & Hadas Stiassnie, 2021. "Intergenerational Mobility in Lifetime Income," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(4), pages 928-949, December.
    15. Azam Mehtabul, 2016. "Intergenerational Educational Persistence among Daughters: Evidence from India," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 16(4), pages 1-16, October.
    16. Guido Neidhöfer, 2019. "Intergenerational mobility and the rise and fall of inequality: Lessons from Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(4), pages 499-520, December.
    17. Ryota Nakano, 2024. "Intergenerational Mobility and Student Loans," ISER Discussion Paper 1248, Institute of Social and Economic Research, The University of Osaka.
    18. Diego Battiston & Stephan Maurer & Andrei Potlogea & Jose V. Rodriguez Mora, 2025. "The Short and Long Run Dynamics of the Great Gatsby Curve," Edinburgh School of Economics Discussion Paper Series 324, Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh.
    19. Dora L. Costa & Coralee Lewis & Noelle Yetter, 2023. "Children and grandchildren of Union Army veterans: New data collections to study the persistence of longevity and socioeconomic status across generations," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(4), pages 223-239, October.
    20. Diego Battiston & Stephan Maurer & Andrei Potlogea & Jose V. Rodriguez Mora, 2023. "The Dynamics of the “Great Gatsby Curve”, and a look at the curve during the Great Gatsby Era," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2023-02, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.

    More about this item

    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:eti:dpaper:13097. 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: TANIMOTO, Toko (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rietijp.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.