Equality of Opportunity for Well-Being
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Equality of Opportunity for Well-Being. / Mahler, Daniel Gerszon; Ramos, Xavier.
2017. p. 1-39.Research output: Working paper › Research
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TY - UNPB
T1 - Equality of Opportunity for Well-Being
AU - Mahler, Daniel Gerszon
AU - Ramos, Xavier
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - A growing literature has tried to measure the extent to which individuals have equal opportunities to acquire income. At the same time, policy makers have doubled downon efforts to go beyond income when measuring well- being. We attempt to bridge these two areas by measuring the extent to which individuals have equal opportunities to achieve a high level of well-being. We use the German Socio-Economic Panel to measure well-being in four different ways including incomes. This makes it possible to determine if the way well-being is measured matters for identifying who the opportunity-deprived are and for tracking inequality of opportunity over time. We find that, regardless of how well-being is measured, the same people are opportunity-deprived and equality of opportunity has improved over the past 20 years. This suggests that going beyond income has little relevance if the objective is to provide equal opportunities.
AB - A growing literature has tried to measure the extent to which individuals have equal opportunities to acquire income. At the same time, policy makers have doubled downon efforts to go beyond income when measuring well- being. We attempt to bridge these two areas by measuring the extent to which individuals have equal opportunities to achieve a high level of well-being. We use the German Socio-Economic Panel to measure well-being in four different ways including incomes. This makes it possible to determine if the way well-being is measured matters for identifying who the opportunity-deprived are and for tracking inequality of opportunity over time. We find that, regardless of how well-being is measured, the same people are opportunity-deprived and equality of opportunity has improved over the past 20 years. This suggests that going beyond income has little relevance if the objective is to provide equal opportunities.
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
KW - equality of opportunity
KW - measurement
KW - responsibility
KW - effort
KW - well-being
M3 - Working paper
T3 - IZA Discussion Paper
SP - 1
EP - 39
BT - Equality of Opportunity for Well-Being
ER -
ID: 182337999