Accumulation and transmission of inequality of opportunity in the double burden of malnutrition: the case of Mexico

Using a life-course perspective and based on Roemer’s inequality of opportunity framework, the hypothesis of an accumulation and intergenerational transmission of ex-ante and ex-post inequality of opportunity in malnutrition is tested. This paper measures the evolution of inequalities in the light of the socioeconomic changes and the evolution of circumstances and efforts experienced by people born between 1983 and 1988 in Mexico. Using a combination of matching and re-weighting methods, a pseudo-birth-cohort is constructed and the effect of circumstances and efforts on inequality of opportunity is disentangled and measured across nutrition-related health outcomes. Results indicate that inequality of opportunity in malnutrition has been a persistent issue across the life course of the birth cohort and that lack of opportunities have been transmitted from parents to children. When disentangling the contribution of circumstances and efforts to inequality in malnutrition, we find that, on average, people’s circumstances explain 72% of the explained variation, whereas efforts account for only 28%. We find that circumstances are the main driver of inequality in undernutrition and no consistent evidence that efforts play a significant role in explaining variation in outcomes associated with overnutrition. The empirical results are relevant for reconsidering the classical assumptions behind the “economics of obesity†.