A Gini approach to inequality of opportunity: evidence from the PSID

Antonio Abatemarco

Empirical Economics, 2015, vol. 49, issue 4, 1497-1519

Abstract: Given (pragmatic) partial ordering criteria for the comparison of individuals in terms of both circumstances and responsible choices, a Gini-based approach is proposed for the measurement of opportunity inequality and its (relative) contribution to outcome inequality. An application to US income distributions from 1999 to 2009 is also discussed. Given six circumstance variables (gender, health, economic condition of parents in the early years, ethnicity, IQ score in the early years and unemployment rate in the place of origin), opportunity inequality is found to account for between 15.0 and 16.6 % of outcome inequality from 1999 to 2009 with a U-shaped pattern over time, supporting existing evidence on the inequality implications of financial crises. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Keywords: Inequality; Opportunity; Measurement; Gini; D63; D31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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DOI: 10.1007/s00181-015-0918-y

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