Inequality of Opportunity in child Health in Ethiopia

While child health is influenced by parental inputs and access to public services, among other factors, the latter are not equitably distributed across children, leading to inequality of opportunity (IOp). Using standardized height-for-age and weight-for-height as health outcome measures, the study decomposes the total inequality in child health in to a part attributable to child circumstances such as parental background, and access to public services—hence IOp in child health, and a part due to random variation in health. Using the young lives survey data in 2002 and 2006, the study then demonstrates that IOp in child health has increased over this period, regardless of the method of inequality decomposition used. Further scrutiny reveals that while access to infrastructure accounts for the highest share of IOp in 2002, mother’s religion, household wealth, access to clean water and sanitation are more responsible for the increase in IOp in 2006.