Measuring Circumstances: Francs or Ranks, Does it Matter?

Arnaud Lefranc, Nicolas Pistolesi () and Alain Trannoy ()
Additional contact information
Nicolas Pistolesi: TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - UT - Université de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement
Alain Trannoy: EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: We analyze equality of opportunity for earnings acquisition in France between 1973 and 1993. Individual circumstances are defined by parental earnings, which can be measured by either father's earnings level or father's rank in the earnings distribution. First, using stochastic dominance tools, we find that inequality of opportunity has remained stable when conditioning on the earnings level of the father, while it has diminished when conditioning on his rank in the earnings distribution. Then, we decompose the evolution of inequality of opportunity using the mean logarithmic deviation and the results of regressions of descendants'earnings on their parents earnings. The former result is explained by the stable intergenerational earnings elasticity. The latter by the decreasing wage inequality in the previous generation.

Keywords: Inequality of opportunity; Stochastic dominance; Circumstances; Decomposition; Mean logarithmic deviation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-12-13
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04157860v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in Juan Gabriel Rodríguez. Inequality of opportunity: Theory and Measurement, 19, Emerald Publishing, pp.131-156, 2010, Research on economic inequality., 978-1-78052-034-6. ⟨10.1108/S1049-2585(2011)0000019009⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-04157860v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04157860

DOI: 10.1108/S1049-2585(2011)0000019009

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().