Long-Term Evolution of Inequality of Opportunity

The main goal of this paper is to document and analyze the long-term evolution of inequality of opportunity and thus extend the recent empirical literature, which is mainly concerned with its measurement at a specific point in time. Using repeated...

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Main Authors:	Bussolo, Maurizio, Checchi, Daniele, Peragine, Vito
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:	INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY DECOMPOSITION ANALYSIS EDUCATION MOBILITY RETURNS TO EDUCATION FAMILY NETWORKING COHORT ANALYSIS
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/966611547560055477/Long-Term-Evolution-of-Inequality-of-Opportunity http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31168

id	okr-10986-31168
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-311682022-08-01T00:26:25Z Long-Term Evolution of Inequality of Opportunity Bussolo, Maurizio Checchi, Daniele Peragine, Vito INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY DECOMPOSITION ANALYSIS EDUCATION MOBILITY RETURNS TO EDUCATION FAMILY NETWORKING COHORT ANALYSIS The main goal of this paper is to document and analyze the long-term evolution of inequality of opportunity and thus extend the recent empirical literature, which is mainly concerned with its measurement at a specific point in time. Using repeated cross-section surveys for five European countries (France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Switzerland), the evolution of inequality of opportunity is measured for a period of about two decades for the whole populations, as well as for different birth cohorts. Relative inequality of opportunity represents an important portion of total income inequality, with values ranging from 30 to 50 percent according to the standard deviation of logs (and reaching a lower share in case of mean log deviation) and, for all the countries, it shows a stable or declining time trend. When the birth cohorts are followed across time, inequality of opportunity decreases with age: the effect of circumstances seems to weaken over the life cycle. This is a quite different age profile from that of inequality of outcomes (income or consumption), which generally increases with age. A decomposition of the relative inequality of opportunity allows highlighting some key drivers of its time evolution. In all the countries, there has been a clear enhancement of equality of educational opportunity (as captured by a downward trending intergenerational education persistence) and a reduction of the returns to education. However, for some countries, notably Italy, these trends have failed to translate into decreasing inequality of opportunity in the income distribution because of the increasing role of parental networking (an additional channel through which parental background affects the incomes of offspring). 2019-01-31T18:32:25Z 2019-01-31T18:32:25Z 2019-01 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/966611547560055477/Long-Term-Evolution-of-Inequality-of-Opportunity http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31168 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8700 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Europe and Central Asia France Germany Italy Switzerland United Kingdom
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY DECOMPOSITION ANALYSIS EDUCATION MOBILITY RETURNS TO EDUCATION FAMILY NETWORKING COHORT ANALYSIS
spellingShingle	INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY DECOMPOSITION ANALYSIS EDUCATION MOBILITY RETURNS TO EDUCATION FAMILY NETWORKING COHORT ANALYSIS Bussolo, Maurizio Checchi, Daniele Peragine, Vito Long-Term Evolution of Inequality of Opportunity
geographic_facet	Europe and Central Asia France Germany Italy Switzerland United Kingdom
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8700
description	The main goal of this paper is to document and analyze the long-term evolution of inequality of opportunity and thus extend the recent empirical literature, which is mainly concerned with its measurement at a specific point in time. Using repeated cross-section surveys for five European countries (France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Switzerland), the evolution of inequality of opportunity is measured for a period of about two decades for the whole populations, as well as for different birth cohorts. Relative inequality of opportunity represents an important portion of total income inequality, with values ranging from 30 to 50 percent according to the standard deviation of logs (and reaching a lower share in case of mean log deviation) and, for all the countries, it shows a stable or declining time trend. When the birth cohorts are followed across time, inequality of opportunity decreases with age: the effect of circumstances seems to weaken over the life cycle. This is a quite different age profile from that of inequality of outcomes (income or consumption), which generally increases with age. A decomposition of the relative inequality of opportunity allows highlighting some key drivers of its time evolution. In all the countries, there has been a clear enhancement of equality of educational opportunity (as captured by a downward trending intergenerational education persistence) and a reduction of the returns to education. However, for some countries, notably Italy, these trends have failed to translate into decreasing inequality of opportunity in the income distribution because of the increasing role of parental networking (an additional channel through which parental background affects the incomes of offspring).
format	Working Paper
author	Bussolo, Maurizio Checchi, Daniele Peragine, Vito
author_facet	Bussolo, Maurizio Checchi, Daniele Peragine, Vito
author_sort	Bussolo, Maurizio
title	Long-Term Evolution of Inequality of Opportunity
title_short	Long-Term Evolution of Inequality of Opportunity
title_full	Long-Term Evolution of Inequality of Opportunity
title_fullStr	Long-Term Evolution of Inequality of Opportunity
title_full_unstemmed	Long-Term Evolution of Inequality of Opportunity
title_sort	long-term evolution of inequality of opportunity
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2019
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/966611547560055477/Long-Term-Evolution-of-Inequality-of-Opportunity http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31168
_version_	1764473698494971904

Long-Term Evolution of Inequality of Opportunity

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