Inequality of opportunity in Europe before and after the Great Recession

Working Paper 2015-353

Abstract

This paper is a follow-up to Marrero and Rodriguez (2012), who estimated the inequality of opportunity (IO) in Europe in 2005. We use the EU-SILC 2005 and 2011 databases to com-pare the IO in 23 European countries before and after the Great Recession. The parametric procedure of Ferreira and Gignoux (2011) is used to measure IO. Results show that between 2004 and 2010 both absolute and relative IO increased in Belgium and Slovakia, while de-creased in Portugal and Lithuania. In addition, relative IO rose in Austria, Hungary and Greece.

Authors: Michal Brzezinski.