Measuring Long-Term Inequality of Opportunity

By Rolf Aaberge, Magne Mogstad, V. Peragine. Social Science Research Network, 2011

136 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In this paper, we introduce and apply a general framework for evaluating long-term income distributions according to the Equality of Opportunity principle. Our framework allows for both an ex-ante and an ex-post approach to EOp. Our ex-post approach relies on a permanent income measure defined as the minimum annual expenditure an individual would need in order to be as well off as he could be by undertaking inter-period income transfers. There is long-term ex-post inequality of opportunity if individuals who exert the same effort have different permanent incomes. In comparison, the ex-ante approach focuses on the expected permanent income for individuals with identical circumstances. Hence, the ex-ante approach pays attention to inequalities in expected permanent income between different types of individuals. To demonstrate the empirical relevance of a long-run perspective on EOp, we exploit a unique panel data from Norway on individuals' incomes over their working lifespan.

Subfields: Gender Studies, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/97d8c2741f529356506fe37cf5ce2850fea1ab3a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Gender Studies

1. Marc Fleurbaey
2. Francisco H. G. Ferreira
3. Dirk Van de gaer
4. V. Peragine
5. Xavier Ramos

In Social Psychology

1. Marc Fleurbaey
2. Francisco H. G. Ferreira
3. V. Peragine
4. Xavier Ramos

In Sociology and Political Science

1. V. Peragine
2. Francisco H. G. Ferreira
3. Marc Fleurbaey
4. Xavier Ramos
5. Dirk Van de gaer
6. P. Brunori
7. Alain Trannoy
8. John E. Roemer

Citations in the corpus

• Empirical Approaches to Inequality of Opportunity: Principles, Measures, and Evidence (2012, background): “…to apply an infinite inequality aversion to compute I ( yc5 ( aRl )) in (7) and puts I ( yc5 ( aRl )) equal to the lowest value of the vector yc5 ( aRl ) divided by mean income.15 In a recent paper, Aaberge et al. (2011) propose to use a rank dependent measure to compute I ( yc5(aRl ) ) in (7).”
• Ex ante versus ex post equality of opportunity (2013, methodology): “This is the approach proposed by Roemer (1993, 1998) and Fleurbaey (1995), and used by Aaberge et al. (2011) and Checchi and Peragine (2010) for an empirical analysis of opportunity inequality.”
• Life-Cycle Earnings, Education Premiums, and Internal Rates of Return (2017, unknown): “To calculate annuity values, we discount the earnings streams by a real interest rate of 2.3%, which corresponds to the average real interest rate on deposits and loans in Norway over the period 1967–2010 (Aaberge, Mogstad, and Peragine 2011).”
• Inequality of Opportunity, Income Inequality and Economic Mobility: Some International Comparisons (2013, background): “Cohen, Gerry A. (1989: “On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice”, Ethics, 99, 906--944.”