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Inequality Of Opportunities Vs. Inequality Of Outcomes: Are Western Societies All Alike?

Author

Listed:
  • Arnaud Lefranc

    (THEMA - Théorie économique, modélisation et applications - UCP - Université de Cergy Pontoise - Université Paris-Seine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Nicolas Pistolesi
  • Alain Trannoy

    (EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales)

Abstract
This paper analyzes the relationship between income inequality and inequality of opportunities for income acquisition in nine developed countries during the 1990s. Equality of opportunity is defined as the situation where income distributions conditional on social origin cannot be ranked according to stochastic dominance criteria. We measure social origin by parental education and occupation and use the database built by Roemer et al. (2003). Stochastic dominance is assessed using nonparametric statistical tests. Our results indicate strong disparities in the degree of equality of opportunity across countries and a strong correlation between inequality of outcomes and inequality of opportunity. The U.S. and Italy show up as the most unequal countries in terms of both outcome and opportunity. At the opposite extreme, income distributions conditional on social origin are almost the same in Scan-dinavian countries even before any redistributive policy. We complement the ordinal comparison by resorting to an original scalar " Gini " index of opportunities, which can be decomposed into a risk and a return component. In our sample, inequality of opportunity is mostly driven by differences in mean income conditional on social origin, and differences in risk compensate the return element in most countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Arnaud Lefranc & Nicolas Pistolesi & Alain Trannoy, 2008. "Inequality Of Opportunities Vs. Inequality Of Outcomes: Are Western Societies All Alike?," Post-Print hal-01650720, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01650720
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4991.2008.00289.x
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Equality of opportunity; Income inequality; Income distribution; Lorenz dominance; Gini Index;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

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