Measuring Inequality of Opportunity in Asia and the Pacific

Gaurav Datt, John Nguyen, Pedro Salas-Rojo, Francisco Ferreira, Paolo Brunori, Vito Peragine, Albert Park, Arturo Martinez and Joseph Albert Nino Bulan

No 2026-05, Monash Economics Working Papers from Monash University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper aims to contribute to an understanding of the extent, nature and persistence of unfair inequality in the Asia Pacific region, building on a rich literature on the measurement of inequality of opportunity (IOp). As part of a project to build a global database of IOp, the paper uses microdata from 39 nationally representative household surveys to present IOp estimates for 14 countries that account for about three-quarters of the region’s population. We use consistent data protocols to ensure a high degree of cross-country comparability of IOp estimates. A distinguishing feature of the exercise is the use of machine learning methods to construct IOp estimates, which efficiently balances the risks of potential under- or over-fitting. The resultsshow that, on average, nearly two-fifths of income or consumption inequality across the Asia-Pacific region represents inequality of opportunity attributable to inherited circumstances, though with wide variation across countries, ranging from about a quarter to over half. The cross-country variation in IOp is consistent with a Great Gatsby curve for the Asia-Pacific. A decomposition analysis assesses the relative contributions of different circumstances to IOp.

Keywords: inequality of opportunity; economic mobility; Asia-Pacific; machine learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D63 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-04-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev
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Working Paper: Measuring inequality of opportunity in Asia and the Pacific (2026)
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