Molina, EzequielNarayan, AmbarSaavedra-Chanduvi, Jaime2015-02-232015-02-232013-12https://hdl.handle.net/10986/21472This paper studies the relationship between inequality of opportunity and development outcomes in a cross-country setting. Scholars have long debated the impact of inequality on growth, development, and the quality of institutions in a society. The empirical relationships are however confounded by the notion that "inequality" can be seen as a composite of inequality arising from differences in effort and ability, which would tend to encourage competition and productivity, and inequality attributable to unequal opportunities, particularly in terms of access to basic goods and services, which might translate to wasted human potential and lower levels of development. The analysis in this paper applies a measure of educational opportunities that incorporates inequality between "types" or circumstance groups. Theories from economic history are used to instrument for this type of inequality in a large cross-country dataset. The results seem to confirm the hypothesis that this measure of inequality of opportunity is a better fit for structural inequality than the Gini index of income. The results suggest that inequality of endowments at the outset of history led to unequal educational opportunities, which in turn affected development outcomes such as institutional quality, infant mortality, and economic growth. The findings are robust to several checks on the instrumental variable specification.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOADULT POPULATIONADVERSE IMPACTAGRICULTUREASSET DISTRIBUTIONBIBLIOGRAPHYCAPITAL ACCUMULATIONCHILD LABORCHILD MORTALITYCHILD WELFARECITIZENSCLASSIFICATIONCOAUTHORSCOMPARATIVE ANALYSISCOUNTRY LEVELCROSS-COUNTRY DATADATA SETDEMOCRACYDEMOCRATIC SOCIETIESDEPENDENT VARIABLEDESCRIPTIONDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDEVELOPMENT ECONOMICSDEVELOPMENT OUTCOMEDEVELOPMENT OUTCOMESDEVELOPMENT POLICYDIFFERENTIAL PATHSDISADVANTAGED CHILDRENDISADVANTAGED GROUPSDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTHDISTRIBUTIONAL MEASURESDIVIDENDSEARLY CHILDHOODECONOMETRIC MODELSECONOMETRICSECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTECONOMIC GROWTHECONOMIC HISTORIANSECONOMIC HISTORYECONOMIC INEQUALITYECONOMIC PROSPERITYECONOMIC RESEARCHECONOMIC REVIEWECONOMIC STUDIESECONOMIES OF SCALEEDUCATION SYSTEMSELASTICITYEMPIRICAL EVIDENCEEMPIRICAL LITERATUREEMPIRICAL RESULTSEMPIRICAL STUDIESEMPIRICAL WORKENDOGENOUS VARIABLEEQUAL DISTRIBUTIONEQUAL OPPORTUNITYEQUAL SOCIETIESEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITYEXPLANATORY POWEREXPLANATORY VARIABLEFACTOR ENDOWMENTSFAMILY INCOMEFAMILY STRUCTUREFUTURE RESEARCHGDPGDP PER CAPITAGINI COEFFICIENTGINI INDEXGROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCTGROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT PER CAPITAGROWTH PROSPECTSHISTORICAL DATAHOUSEHOLD DATAHOUSEHOLD SURVEY DATAHOUSEHOLD SURVEYSHUMAN CAPITALHUMAN DEVELOPMENTHUMAN POTENTIALIMPACT OF INEQUALITYINCOMEINCOME DISTRIBUTIONINCOME INEQUALITYINCOME LEVELINEQUALITY MEASURESINFANTINFANT MORTALITYINFANT MORTALITY RATEINTERVENTIONSLABOR INCOMELABOR MARKETLAND OWNERSHIPLEVEL OF DEVELOPMENTLEVEL OF EDUCATIONLONG-RUN GROWTHMEASURING INEQUALITYNEGATIVE CORRELATIONNEGATIVE EFFECTNEGATIVE IMPACTNEGATIVE RELATIONSHIP0 HYPOTHESISNUMBER OF CHILDRENNUTRITIONPARTICIPATION IN SOCIETYPER CAPITA INCOMEPOLICY DISCUSSIONSPOLICY RESEARCHPOLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPERPOLITICAL ECONOMYPOLITICAL ECONOMY CHANNELPOLITICAL INSTITUTIONSPOLITICAL POWERPOLITICAL SCIENCEPOOR HEALTHPOSITIVE EFFECTPOSITIVE IMPACTPOSITIVE RELATIONSHIPPOVERTY REDUCTIONPRIMARY EDUCATIONPRIMARY SCHOOLPROBABILITYPROGRAMSPROGRESSPROPERTY RIGHTSPUBLIC ECONOMICSREADINGREDUCING INEQUALITYREGIONAL DUMMIESRELATIVE IMPORTANCERESEARCHERSRESPECTSANITATIONSCHOOL ATTENDANCESECONDARY ENROLLMENTSENSITIVITY ANALYSISSIGNIFICANT NEGATIVESIGNIFICANT RELATIONSHIPSOCIAL DEVELOPMENTSOCIAL SCIENCESUSTAINABLE GROWTHUNEQUAL POWERVICIOUS CYCLEWAGESWEALTHWEB10.1596/1813-9450-6735