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Abstract: Different conceptions of equality of opportunity differ in whether they view the impact of innate characteristics on life chances as just or unjust. Radical equality of opportunity views the impact of innate characteristics on life chances as unjust, while liberal equality of opportunity views it as just. We use data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) to address two shortcomings of previous research. First, we use polygenic indices (PGIs) to obtain better measures of innate characteristics and compare using PGIs to proxy innate characteristics to using skills measured in adolescence to proxy innate characteristics. Second, we use family fixed effects models to estimate the causal effects of PGIs, since only the genes one receives from one's parents relative to one's siblings are a random lottery. Our results show that radical inequality of opportunity is greater than liberal inequality of opportunity, but the difference is less pronounced when PGIs are used to measure innate characteristics rather than skills measured in adolescence. Differences between radical and liberal inequality of opportunity are larger for education, occupation, and health than for income and wealth.

The Sociology Seminar Series for Trinity Term is convened by Bess Bukodi.  For more information about this or any of the seminars in the series, please contact sociology.secretary@nuffield.ox.ac.uk.