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[Joint work with Alicia Garcia Sierra, Swiss Centre of Expertise in Life Course Research LIVES, University of Lausanne]

Abstract: Research on social inequalities is motivated by a concern for but often avoids referring to equality of opportunity. What is more, in philosophy and political theory different conceptions of equality of opportunity have been developed but an empirical implementation and comparisons of these conceptions is lacking. This study develops an empirical framework to measure two conceptions of equality of opportunity. Both conceptions of equality of opportunity consider it as unjust if ascribed characteristics such as social origin, migration background, and gender affect life chances. However, under liberal equality of opportunity, it is considered as just if innate abilities and effort affect life chances. Contrary to that, radical equality of opportunity only considers it as just if effort affects life chances. We measure liberal and radical inequality of opportunity with respect to education, occupation, income, and wealth using survey data from Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The results show that radical inequality of opportunity can be considerably higher than liberal inequality of opportunity but more so for education and occupation than for income and wealth.

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