Abstract
This paper considers the role of gender in generating inequality of opportunity. Using data on long-run income for Swedish men and women, we explore to what extent income inequality is due to circumstances beyond individuals’ control, such as gender and parental income, rather than to differences in individuals’ choices. The key idea is that a society has achieved equality of opportunity if there is no income inequality that is due to circumstances. Analyzing men and women separately, we find that circumstances account for up to 31% of income inequality among men and up to 25% among women. We conclude that there is greater equality of opportunity among women than among men. When we analyze men and women together, treating gender as a circumstance, at most 38% of income inequality can be attributed to circumstances. Gender accounts for up to 13% of income inequality, making gender the single most important circumstance in accounting for inequality in long-run income in Sweden.
Highlights
Economic inequality is of substantial academic and public-policy interest
B Markus Jäntti markus.jantti@sofi.su.se 1 Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden literature has traditionally focused on inequality of outcomes, in recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in inequality of opportunity
The equality of opportunity literature leans on the idea that individual outcomes depend in part on individual effort and in part on circumstances that are beyond an individual’s control, such as parental income and childhood standard of living
Summary
Economic inequality is of substantial academic and public-policy interest. Literature has traditionally focused on inequality of outcomes, in recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in inequality of opportunity (see, for example, Almås et al 2011; Björklund et al 2012; Checchi and Peragine 2010; Ferreira and Gignoux 2011). The equality of opportunity literature leans on the idea that individual outcomes depend in part on individual effort and in part on circumstances that are beyond an individual’s control, such as parental income and childhood standard of living. The core argument is that inequalities due to effort differences are ethically defensible, while those due to differences in circumstances are not. A society is said to have achieved equality of opportunity if circumstances have no influence on outcomes
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