Inequality of Opportunity in South Caucasus

This paper discusses equality of opportunity in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, with an emphasis on access to labor market opportunities. It develops an inequality of opportunity index on access to good jobs and decomposes the contributing factor...

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Main Authors: Fuchs, Alan, Tiwari, Sailesh, Shidiq, Akhmad Rizal
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/337061525706296867/Inequality-of-opportunity-in-South-Caucasus
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29838
id okr-10986-29838
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-298382021-06-08T14:42:46Z Inequality of Opportunity in South Caucasus Fuchs, Alan Tiwari, Sailesh Shidiq, Akhmad Rizal INTERGENERATIONAL MOBILITY INEQUALITY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT LABOR MARKET LABOR MOBILITY POVERTY REDUCTION JOBS GENDER EQUALITY This paper discusses equality of opportunity in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, with an emphasis on access to labor market opportunities. It develops an inequality of opportunity index on access to good jobs and decomposes the contributing factors in the prevailing inequality. Then, it discusses the extent to which inequality in accessing human capital inputs among individuals during the early formative years may affect access to good jobs. The main takeaways are as follows. First, connections play an important role in obtaining access to good jobs in the South Caucasus, highlighting the unfairness in processes in the sub-region's labor markets. Second, access to good jobs—defined as work for 20 hours or more a week and work under contract or with tenure—is low in the South Caucasus in comparison with other parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Third, even among people who have access to these jobs, the share of the total inequality of opportunity that may be characterized as unfair is relatively high. Armenia and Azerbaijan stand out for the significant share of inequality in access to good jobs associated with gender differences. Fourth, the analysis on access to education and basic human capital inputs in the earlier, formative stages of life shows that learning performance in the South Caucasus tends to be poor and unequal across the life circumstances of children. Nonetheless, the coverage rates of basic human capital inputs are generally high; the relatively narrow inequalities arise mostly from spatial disparities. These results indicate that addressing the deep structural inequalities shaping the landscape of opportunity in the South Caucasus must be a key consideration in any strategy to share prosperity sustainably. 2018-05-16T15:32:30Z 2018-05-16T15:32:30Z 2018-05 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/337061525706296867/Inequality-of-opportunity-in-South-Caucasus http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29838 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8432 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Europe and Central Asia Eastern Europe Armenia Azerbaijan Georgia
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic INTERGENERATIONAL MOBILITY
INEQUALITY
EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY
EDUCATION
EMPLOYMENT
LABOR MARKET
LABOR MOBILITY
POVERTY REDUCTION
JOBS
GENDER EQUALITY
spellingShingle INTERGENERATIONAL MOBILITY
INEQUALITY
EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY
EDUCATION
EMPLOYMENT
LABOR MARKET
LABOR MOBILITY
POVERTY REDUCTION
JOBS
GENDER EQUALITY
Fuchs, Alan
Tiwari, Sailesh
Shidiq, Akhmad Rizal
Inequality of Opportunity in South Caucasus
geographic_facet Europe and Central Asia
Eastern Europe
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Georgia
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8432
description This paper discusses equality of opportunity in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, with an emphasis on access to labor market opportunities. It develops an inequality of opportunity index on access to good jobs and decomposes the contributing factors in the prevailing inequality. Then, it discusses the extent to which inequality in accessing human capital inputs among individuals during the early formative years may affect access to good jobs. The main takeaways are as follows. First, connections play an important role in obtaining access to good jobs in the South Caucasus, highlighting the unfairness in processes in the sub-region's labor markets. Second, access to good jobs—defined as work for 20 hours or more a week and work under contract or with tenure—is low in the South Caucasus in comparison with other parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Third, even among people who have access to these jobs, the share of the total inequality of opportunity that may be characterized as unfair is relatively high. Armenia and Azerbaijan stand out for the significant share of inequality in access to good jobs associated with gender differences. Fourth, the analysis on access to education and basic human capital inputs in the earlier, formative stages of life shows that learning performance in the South Caucasus tends to be poor and unequal across the life circumstances of children. Nonetheless, the coverage rates of basic human capital inputs are generally high; the relatively narrow inequalities arise mostly from spatial disparities. These results indicate that addressing the deep structural inequalities shaping the landscape of opportunity in the South Caucasus must be a key consideration in any strategy to share prosperity sustainably.
format Working Paper
author Fuchs, Alan
Tiwari, Sailesh
Shidiq, Akhmad Rizal
author_facet Fuchs, Alan
Tiwari, Sailesh
Shidiq, Akhmad Rizal
author_sort Fuchs, Alan
title Inequality of Opportunity in South Caucasus
title_short Inequality of Opportunity in South Caucasus
title_full Inequality of Opportunity in South Caucasus
title_fullStr Inequality of Opportunity in South Caucasus
title_full_unstemmed Inequality of Opportunity in South Caucasus
title_sort inequality of opportunity in south caucasus
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2018
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/337061525706296867/Inequality-of-opportunity-in-South-Caucasus
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29838
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