Equal Opportunities to Prosper: A Statistical Analysis of Macro- and Microeconomic Factors

Abstract

Societies strive to achieve socio-economic systems that provide equal and broadbased opportunities to their people. The concept of “equal opportunities” is a very complex one, and encompasses many definitions and several different areas of life. ‘Equal opportunities’ does not only mean to be able to access basic services and ideally with the same quality standards; it may also mean to find a decent job and lead fulfilling professional lives, or also to thrive personally, without facing discriminations or – essentially – moving from the expectation that – if all people are indeed equal – conditions should be such that (while people cannot systematically have the same starting points in life) the resources available and the sociopoliticaleconomic principles that govern life may help level off the playing field, and provide a fair chance for success to all, without distinctions. Analyzing equality of opportunities has typically translated into the utilization of complex statistics, ranging from concentration indexes (e.g. the Gini coefficient) to sophisticated modeling of growth patterns, poverty outcomes, human behavior and social justice principles. The three papers presented in this monograph intend to discuss this question from selected and very distinct perspectives: 1) how (and if) financial access benefits peoples’ wellbeing; to do this we applied an econometric framework to a case-study based on Mauritania; 2) how natural resource endowment is correlated with economic growth and inequality indicators; in this case we adopted a global perspective and utilized a dataset covering over 40 countries; and 3) if tax incentives can be an effective tool in achieving economic growth in an way that does not distort competition among enterprises; also in this case we utilized a case-study approach, focusing on the experience of the Dominican Republic, to try and determine policy lessons... [edited by Author]