The Effect of Family Background on Individual Wages and an Examination of Inequality of Opportunity in India

Journal of Labor Research - Tập 31 - Trang 230-246 - 2010
Ashish Singh1
1Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India

Tóm tắt

The paper attempts to explore the role of family background in contributing to the overall economic inequality in Indian society. Drawing on the recent work on equality of opportunity, and using the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS, 2004–05), paper finds that the opportunity share of inequality in wage earnings in India ranges from 11% to 17% across different age based cohorts. Given the conservative view of what constitutes responsibility, the analysis is likely to identify only the lower bound of opportunity inequality. The paper also calls for redistributive policies favoring those who suffer from inferior circumstances.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Adams C (2008) Educational inequality in institutionalized social stratification system: the case of caste-based educational inequality in India. Presented at the annual meeting of Population Association of America, New Orleans, LA Arneson R (1989) Equality and equal opportunity for welfare. Philos Stud 56:77–93 Barros RP, Francisco HG, Vega JRM, Chanduvi JS (2009) Measuring inequality of opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean. The World Bank, Washington Behrman J, Taubman P (1976) Intergenerational transmission of income and wealth. Am Econ Rev 66:436–440 Betts J, Roemer J (2007) Equalizing opportunity for racial and socio-economic groups in the United States through educational finance reform. In: Woessman L, Peterson PE (eds) Schools and the equal opportunity problem. MIT Press, Harvard Bourguignon F, Ferreira FHG (1979) Decomposable income inequality measures. Econometrica 47:901–920 Bourguignon F, Ferreira FHG, Menéndez M (2007) Inequality of opportunity in Brazil. Rev Income Wealth 53:585–618 Bowles S (1972) Schooling and inequality from generation to generation. J Polit Econ 80:S219–S251 Card D (1999) The causal effect of education on earnings. In: Ashenfelter O, Card D (eds) Handbook of labour economics, vol 3. Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, pp 1801–1863 Checchi D, Peragine V (2009) Inequality of opportunity in Italy. J Econ Ineq. doi:10.1007/s10888-009-9118-3 Cogneau D, Bossuroy T, De Vreyer C, Guenard V, Hiller Ph, Leite S, Mesple-Somps, Pasquier-Doumer L, Torelli C (2006) Inequalities and equity in Africa. DIAL working paper, No. DT/2006-11 Cohen G (1989) On the currency of egalitarian justice. Ethics 99:906–944 Deaton A, Dreze J (2002) Poverty and inequality in India: a re-examination. EPW 37:3729–3748 Desai S, Adams C, (2006) In the margins: social inequality in children’s educational outcomes in India. Presented at the annual meeting of Population Association of America, Los Angeles, CA Desai S, Kulkarni V (2008) Changing educational inequalities in India in the context of affirmative action. Demography 45:245–270 Dev Mahendra S, Ravi C (2007) Poverty and inequality: all India and States, 1983–2005. EPW 42:509–521 Dutta P, Murgai R, Howes S (2009) Small but effective: India’s targeted unconditional cash transfers. Presented at 5th annual conference on economic growth and development, ISI Delhi, Delhi Dworkin R (1981) What is equality? Part two: equality of resources. Philos Public Aff 10:283–345 Ferreira F, Gignoux J (2008) The measurement of inequality of opportunity: theory and application to Latin America. Policy Research Working Paper 4659, World Bank Foster J, Shneyerov A (2000) Path independent inequality measures. J Econ Theory 91:199–222 Himanshu (2007) Recent trends in poverty and inequality: some preliminary results. EPW 42:497–508 Jayadev A, Motiram S, Vakulabharanam V (2007) Patterns of wealth disparities in India during the liberalization era. EPW 42:3853–3863 Lambert PJ, Aronson JR (1993) Inequality decomposition analysis and the Gini coefficient revisited. Econ J 103:1221–1227 Lefranc A, Pistolesi N, Trannoy A (2006) Equality of opportunity: definitions and testable conditions, with application to income in France. THEMA Working Papers 2006-13 Maitra P, Sharma A (2009) Parent’s and children: education across generations in India. Presented at 5th annual conference on economic growth and development, ISI Delhi, Delhi Nayyar G (2008) Economic growth and regional inequality in India. EPW 43:58–67 Page M, Roemer J (2001) The US fiscal system as an equal opportunity device. In: Hasset K, Hubbard GR (eds) The role of inequality in tax policy. The American Enterprise Institute Press, Washington Rawls J (1971) A theory of justice, 1st edn. Harvard University Press, Cambridge Roemer JE (1998) Equality of opportunity, 1st edn. Harvard University Press, Cambridge Roemer JE (2006) Economic development as opportunity equalization. Cowles Foundation Discussion Paper, No. 1583, Yale University Sen M, Noon J (2007) Living arrangements: how does it relate to the health of the elderly in India. Presented at the annual meeting of Population Association of America, New York, NY Shorrocks AF (1980) The class of additively decomposable inequality measures. Econometrica 48:613–625 Shorrocks AF, Wan G (2005) Spatial decomposition of inequality. J Econ Geogr 5:59–81 Singh N, Bhandari L, Chen A, Khare A (2003) Regional inequality in India: a fresh look. EPW 38:1069–1073 Solon G (1999) Intergenerational mobility in the labor market. In: Ashenfelter O, Card D (eds) Handbook of labor economics, vol 3A. Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, pp 1761–1800 Vanneman R, Adams C, Dubey A (2007) Income, consumption and assets in India. Presented at the annual meeting of Population Association of America, New York, NY