Inequality of opportunity : the case of education in Argentina

Abstract

We assess for the first time inequality of opportunity (IOp) in education in Argentina following a parametric approach proposed by Bourguignon, Ferreira and Menéndez (2007). We use this methodology to quantify the degree of IOp associated with an empirical distribution of academic achievement from a sample of 15-year old students provided by the PISA 2009 survey. For this, we simulate the reduction in educational performance inequality which would attain if differences in “circumstance” variables – those that lie beyond the individual´s responsibility – were eliminated so that we can interpret this difference between observed and counterfactual inequality as a mean lower bound for IOp. We find that on average at least 20% of total students’ performance inequality is due to unequal opportunities. The most important circumstances affecting educational achievement are those one possibly highly correlated with student family income or wealth and with other unobservables such as parents’ dedication to their children’s education, in our case, whether the student goes to a public or private school, the possession of educational inputs at home and parental education.