A Study of Inequality of Opportunity in Income Distribution

Abstract

Addressing inequality in income distribution is an important tool to achieve the goal of significantly reducing the gap in living standards by 2025. Among the factors contributing to the widening of income inequality, there are both equity factors related to differences in individual effort and inequality factors related to differences in environment and opportunities. In this context, the key to solving the problem of inequality in income distribution lies in eliminating inequality of opportunity as much as possible, which in turn is predicated on measuring the extent to which inequality of opportunity leads to income inequality. The latest research trend in recent years has been to gradually focus on inequality of opportunity, an important environmental factor affecting income disparity. The scientific measurement and decomposition of the components of inequality of opportunity and their impact outcomes can help achieve inclusive growth with equality of opportunity at its core. The current relevant studies mainly use non-parametric and parametric estimation methods to measure the level of inequality of opportunity, especially the parametric method is more widely used.