O some kinds of inequality are ethically objectionable. The distinction between morally acceptable and unacceptable inequal ity is perhaps the most important contribution of philosophical egalitarian thought during the last forty years. In particular, more information than the welfare derived from final outcomes is needed to render social judgment about the degree of inequality. One must also k...

Education Policy and Equality of Opportunity We provide a measure of equality of educational opportunity in 54 countries, estimated as the effect of family background on student performance in two international TIMSS tests. We then show how organizational features of the education system affect equality of educational opportunity. Our model predicts that late tracking and a long pre-school cycl...

We consider a production economy ‘à la Mirrlees’ to be one in which the earning capability of individuals is endogenous. Individuals are heterogeneous with respect to their preferences and their propensity to benefit from a given investment in human capital. We look for allocation rules satisfying properties that capture the objective of equalizing opportunities. We characterize four allocation...

Equality of opportunity is concerned with the level-the-playing-field principle: society should compensate individuals who suffer from bad circumstances but let the agents exercise their responsibility. This paper proposes a partial ordering based on the inequality-of-opportunity curve, a mechanism that gives preference to those who are worse in terms of opportunity. Moreover, it is provided a ...

Education Policy and Equality of Opportunity We provide a measure of equality of educational opportunity in 54 countries, estimated as the effect of family background on student performance in two international TIMSS tests. We then show how organizational features of the education system affect equality of educational opportunity. Our model predicts that late tracking and a long pre-school cycl...

One often heard counter to the concern about rising income and wealth inequality is that it is wrong to focus on inequality of outcomes in a “snapshot”. Intergenerational mobility and “equality of opportunity”, so the argument goes, is what matters for normative evaluation. In response to this counter, we ask what pattern of intergenerational mobility leads to lower inequality not between indiv...