Inequality of Human Opportunities in Developing Asia

Hyun Hwa Son
Additional contact information
Hyun Hwa Son: Asian Development Bank

No 328, ADB Economics Working Paper Series from Asian Development Bank

Abstract: This paper analyzes the equity of opportunity in basic education and infrastructure services in seven developing countries, namely, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam. The analysis applies a method developed by the World Bank called the Human Opportunity Index (HOI). The HOI measures the total contribution of individuals’ socioeconomic and demographic circumstances to inequality of opportunity in accessing basic services. A new methodology presented in this study, however, provides a way to quantify the relative contribution of each circumstance variable to the inequality of opportunity. Results of the empirical analysis indicate that more needs to be done to improve the distribution of economic benefits. Opportunities to access basic education and infrastructure services in the seven countries vary widely in terms of availability and distribution. The study also finds that inequality of opportunity is driven mainly by per capita household expenditure. This suggests that household poverty plays a crucial role in determining equitable access to basic services.

Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2012-06-30
Note: http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/pub/2012/economics-wp-328.pdf
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.adb.org/publications/inequality-human-opportunities-developing-asia Full text (text/html)

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:ris:adbewp:0328

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ADB Economics Working Paper Series from Asian Development Bank 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City, 1550 Metro Manila, Philippines. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Orlee Velarde ().