Channels of inequality of opportunity: The role of education and occupation in Europe

Juan Palomino, Gustavo Marrero and Juan Rodríguez

No 411, Working Papers from ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality

Abstract: This paper studies the contribution of individual education and occupation to individual opportunity in Europe. Although the differences in inequality of opportunity (IO) among European countries are significant, no systematic approach has yet been proposed to analyse the channels through which different individual circumstances turn into different income levels. Here, we propose a simple two-step method to quantify the contribution to IO of individual education and occupation across Europe in 2004 and 2010. We find that the level of education channels up to 30\% of total IO, with important differences across Europe but no clear patterns of change over time. Moreover, we observe a negative correlation between the share of IO channelled through education and the share of the population with tertiary education. Once education is taken into account, the occupational category of individuals explains less than 5\% of total IO in most European countries.

Keywords: Inequality of opportunity; education; occupation; Europe. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 I24 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 64 pages
Date: 2016-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-eur and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Journal Article: Channels of Inequality of Opportunity: The Role of Education and Occupation in Europe (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2016-411

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