Long-Term Evolution of Inequality of Opportunity

Maurizio Bussolo, Daniele Checchi and Vito Peragine

No 03-2020, SERIES from Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza - Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro"

Abstract: The main goal of this paper is to document and analyze the long-term evolution of inequality of opportunity (IOp) in the four largest European economies (France, Germany, Great Britain and Italy). Relative IOp represents an important portion of total income inequality, with values ranging from 30 to 50 percent according to the standard deviation of logs. For all the countries, relative IOp shows a stable or declining time trend. In addition to these descriptive findings, the paper proposes a theoretical framework identifying channels of transmission which may affect IOp. Using this framework, a decomposition focuses on the role of three variables: a) intergenerational persistence in educational attainment, b) return of education, and c) networking activity of parents. While the first two variables exhibit a declining trend in all countries, which as predicted by the model should produce a decline in IOp, the third one appears to be rising in some countries, counteracting the effects of the first twoKeywords: Inequality of Opportunity, Decomposition methods, Education mobility, Returns to Education, Family Networking, Cohort Analysis

JEL-codes: D31 D63 E24 I24 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 277
Date: 2020-03, Revised 2020-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-his and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Long-Term Evolution of Inequality of Opportunity (2020)
Working Paper: Long-Term Evolution of Inequality of Opportunity (2020)
Working Paper: Long-term evolution of inequality of opportunity (2019)
Working Paper: Long-Term Evolution of Inequality of Opportunity (2019)
Working Paper: The long term evolution of inequality of opportunity (2018)
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