Multidimensional Equality of Opportunity (EOPM)

Tasks

Unlike pure inequality measures, equal opportunity measures also take into account individual responsibility for the differences observed. Equal opportunity means that factors that are beyond an individual’s sphere of influence should have no influence on his/her well-being. In such a society all individuals would have the same opportunities to achieve their life goals depending on their own efforts.

It is widely recognised that individual well-being cannot be represented by individual proxy variables like, for example, income. If suitable policy measures are to be found to create an equal opportunities society, they must reflect the multi-dimensional nature of well-being. At present, however, there are no suitable measures of multi-dimensional equal opportunity. This project aims to fill this research gap.

Methods

The first part of this project is theoretical and requires the axiomatic deduction of suitable measures. The empirical questions raised by this project will be answered using relevant, cutting-edge micro-econometric methods. These include regression analyses, policy evaluation methods, as well as micro-simulations.

Data and other sources

Both administrative and survey data form the basis of this research. Country analyses, for France and Germany for example, are conducted on the basis of FQP and GSOEPs. Administrative register data are used for Sweden. For country comparisons EU-SILC and SHARE are adopted, while additional datasets like BCS70 and the PSID are used to validate the results.