Equality of Opportunity : Theory and Evidence

Building on earlier work by political philosophers, economists have recently sought to define a concept of equity that accommodates the fairness of reward to individual responsibility and effort, while allowing for the existence of some inequalities which are unfair and should be compensated. This p...

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Main Authors:	Ferreira, Francisco H.G., Peragine, Vito
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	en_US
Published:	World Bank Group, Washington, DC 2015
Subjects:	equality of opportunity inequality of opportunity compensation reward equal opportunity poverty poverty measures equity
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21656

id	okr-10986-21656
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-216562021-04-23T14:04:03Z Equality of Opportunity : Theory and Evidence Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Peragine, Vito equality of opportunity inequality of opportunity compensation reward equal opportunity poverty poverty measures equity Building on earlier work by political philosophers, economists have recently sought to define a concept of equity that accommodates the fairness of reward to individual responsibility and effort, while allowing for the existence of some inequalities which are unfair and should be compensated. This paper -- commissioned as a chapter for the Oxford Handbook of Well Being and Public Policy -- provides a critical review of the economic literature on equality and inequality of opportunity. A simple 'canonical model' of equal opportunity is proposed, and used to explore the two fundamental concepts in this (relatively) new theory of social justice: the principles of compensation and reward. Ex-ante and ex-post versions of the compensation principle are presented, and the tensions between them are discussed. Different approaches to the measurement of inequality of opportunity -- and empirical applications -- are reviewed, and implications for the measurement of poverty and of the rate of economic development are discussed. 2015-03-31T16:16:21Z 2015-03-31T16:16:21Z 2015-03 Working Paper http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21656 en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7217 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank Group, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	equality of opportunity inequality of opportunity compensation reward equal opportunity poverty poverty measures equity
spellingShingle	equality of opportunity inequality of opportunity compensation reward equal opportunity poverty poverty measures equity Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Peragine, Vito Equality of Opportunity : Theory and Evidence
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7217
description	Building on earlier work by political philosophers, economists have recently sought to define a concept of equity that accommodates the fairness of reward to individual responsibility and effort, while allowing for the existence of some inequalities which are unfair and should be compensated. This paper -- commissioned as a chapter for the Oxford Handbook of Well Being and Public Policy -- provides a critical review of the economic literature on equality and inequality of opportunity. A simple 'canonical model' of equal opportunity is proposed, and used to explore the two fundamental concepts in this (relatively) new theory of social justice: the principles of compensation and reward. Ex-ante and ex-post versions of the compensation principle are presented, and the tensions between them are discussed. Different approaches to the measurement of inequality of opportunity -- and empirical applications -- are reviewed, and implications for the measurement of poverty and of the rate of economic development are discussed.
format	Working Paper
author	Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Peragine, Vito
author_facet	Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Peragine, Vito
author_sort	Ferreira, Francisco H.G.
title	Equality of Opportunity : Theory and Evidence
title_short	Equality of Opportunity : Theory and Evidence
title_full	Equality of Opportunity : Theory and Evidence
title_fullStr	Equality of Opportunity : Theory and Evidence
title_full_unstemmed	Equality of Opportunity : Theory and Evidence
title_sort	equality of opportunity : theory and evidence
publisher	World Bank Group, Washington, DC
publishDate	2015
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21656
_version_	1764448896308740096

Equality of Opportunity : Theory and Evidence

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