Inequality of Opportunity in Sub-Saharan Africa
In the last decades, inequality of opportunity has been extensively studied by economists on the assumption that, in addition to being normatively undesirable, it can be related to low potential for growth. This paper evaluates inequality of opport...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/08/26660755/inequality-opportunity-sub-saharan-africa http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24863 |
| Summary: | In the last decades, inequality of
opportunity has been extensively studied by economists on
the assumption that, in addition to being normatively
undesirable, it can be related to low potential for growth.
This paper evaluates inequality of opportunity and the
different sources of unequal opportunities in 11 Sub-Saharan
Africa countries. The results indicate that the portion of
total inequality that can be attributed to exogenous
circumstances -- that is, circumstances outside the control
of individuals control -- is between 30 percent and 40
percent in the countries considered. The results also
indicate a positive association between total consumption
inequality and inequality of opportunity. Finally, this
paper addresses a number of methodological issues that
typically arise when measuring inequality of opportunity
with imperfect data, which is the typical case in developing countries. |
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