Giving equality of opportunity a fair innings

Dias, Pedro Rosa; Jones, Andrew M.

doi:10.1002/hec.1207

Cited by 37 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Although the contribution of unobservable factors is captured in our decomposition method, we are clearly not able to measure the contribution of these factors to the overall inequality. More generally, the set of circumstances available in our empirical application are much closer to the ones employed in the normative literature on health equity (e.g., Rosa Dias & Jones, ). Yet, the partial observability of the circumstances is a common feature of all IOp analyses (Ferreira and Peragine, ), which is hard to solve with the datasets usually available to scholars.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The choice of circumstances and effort variables in our empirical application is largely based on the literature dealing with the measurement of IOp in health (i.e., Rosa Dias, , ; Jusot et al, ; García‐Gomez et al, ) and the normative literature on the measurement of health equity (see the discussion in Rosa Dias and Jones, for more details). Thus, we treat as circumstances the cohort of birth, gender, educational level, and neighbourhood (more vs. less deprived areas) based on the index of multiple deprivation (IMD) scores.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The EOp principle has been advocated for the evaluation of a wide range of policies: from educational policies and their impact on health (Jones, Rice, & Rosa Dias, ; Jones, Roemer, & Rosa Dias, ) to policies related to the allocation of the international aid to countries for the reduction of poverty (Cogneau & Naudet, ). The theoretical relevance of EOp in health has been advocated by many authors (e.g., Fleurbaey & Schokkaert, , ; Rosa Dias & Jones, ; Sen, ), and the relevance of EOp has been placed at the top of the “inequality of what” debate by relevant institutions (e.g., World Bank, ). A growing literature has addressed the measurement of IOp in health (e.g., Rosa Dias, ; Rosa Dias, ; Trannoy, Tubeuf, Jusot, & Devaux, ; Jusot, Tubeuf, & Trannoy, ; Li Donni, Peragine, & Pignataro, ; García‐Gómez et al, ; Kim, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inequality of opportunity in health: A decomposition‐based approach

Carrieri

Jones

2018

Health Economics

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This paper presents new decomposition-based approaches to measure inequality of opportunity in health that capture Roemer's distinction between circumstances and effort and are consistent with both compensation and reward principles. Our approach is fully nonparametric in the way that it handles differences in circumstances and provides decompositions of both a rank-dependent relative (the Gini coefficient) and a rank-independent absolute inequality index (the variance). The decompositions distinguish the contribution of effort from the direct and indirect (through effort) contribution of circumstances to the total inequality. Our approach is illustrated by an empirical application that uses objectively measured biomarkers as health outcomes and as proxies for relevant effort variables. Using data from the Health Survey for England from 2003 to 2012, we find that circumstances are the leading determinant of inequality in cholesterol, glycated haemoglobin, and in a combined ill-health index whereas effort plays a substantial role in explaining inequality in fibrinogen only.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inequality of opportunity in health: A decomposition‐based approach

Carrieri

Jones

2018

Health Economics

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“…Individuals who share the same circumstances, such as parental smoking, may still differ when deciding whether to start smoking and whether to quit. The opportunity approach to inequality has recently become influential in the health economics literature, although it was already implicit in much of the existing works on health equity (see Rosa Dias and Jones (2007)). Empirical applications can be found in Trannoy et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Catching the Habit: A Study of Inequality of Opportunity in Smoking-Related Mortality

Balia

Jones

2010

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A: Statistics in Society

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The paper presents a latent factor model for initiation of smoking, cessation and mortality using the British Health and Lifestyle Survey. This allows us to investigate inequality of opportunity in risk of mortality, focusing on the intergenerational transmission of smoking. We find that the hazard of mortality is higher for current and former smokers relative to never smokers. Furthermore we find that parental smoking plays an important role in the dynamics of smoking and indirectly affects mortality. Predictions derived from the model show that inequality in mortality decreases if individuals adopt the best level of effort (not smoking) or if circumstances are favourable (if parents are non-smokers)

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“…Parental socioeconomic status affects child health, which is related to future educational and labor market possibilities [5]; poor health status and consequently high health care costs may be more correlated among siblings and possibly neighbors. Childhood circumstances directly and indirectly influence adult health controlling for effort (decisions for which an individual is fully responsible) [6,7]. Human potential is not fulfilled when the possibilities vary so much among families and across environments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adolescent outcomes and opportunities in a Canadian province: looking at siblings and neighbors

2014

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BackgroundWell-organized administrative data with large numbers of cases (building on linked files from several government departments) and a population registry facilitate new studies of population health and child development. Analyses of family relationships and a number of outcomes--educational achievement, health, teen pregnancy, and receipt of income assistance--are relatively easy to conduct using several birth cohorts. Looking both at means/proportions and at sibling correlations enriches our study of opportunity and well-being in late adolescence. With observational research possibly exaggerating the causal effects of risk factors, sibling comparisons involving individuals sharing both many family characteristics and many genes help deal with such criticisms.MethodsThis paper uses a rich dataset from one Canadian province (Manitoba) covering a wide range of geographical areas (cities to rural regions). Influences on opportunity and well-being are analyzed looking at both means/proportions and sibling correlations. We measure a variety of outcomes that may reflect different causal influences. A creative application of linear programming advances the use of data on residential location.ResultsPredicting educational achievement using available variables was much easier than predicting adolescent health status (R-square of .200 versus R-square of .043). Low levels of educational achievement, high levels of teenage pregnancy, and high sibling correlations outside Winnipeg and within Winnipeg’s lower income areas highlight inequalities across socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds. Stratifying our analyses by different variables, such as income quintiles, reveals differences in means and correlations within outcomes and across groups. Particular events--changes in mother’s marital status and in place of residence--were associated with less favorable outcomes in late adolescence.ConclusionOur findings suggest a paradox: Canadian developmental outcomes through late adolescence appear quite similar to those in the United States, even though intergenerational mobility in Canada is closer to mobility in the Nordic countries than to that in the United States.

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Giving equality of opportunity a fair innings

Abstract: No Abstract

Cited by 37 publications

References 17 publications

Inequality of opportunity in health: A decomposition‐based approach

Inequality of opportunity in health: A decomposition‐based approach

Catching the Habit: A Study of Inequality of Opportunity in Smoking-Related Mortality

Adolescent outcomes and opportunities in a Canadian province: looking at siblings and neighbors

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