MEASURING INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY IN PAKISTAN: PARAMETRIC AND NON-PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS

The present study estimates inequality of opportunity for Pakistan by using parametric and non-parametric analysis. Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement Surveys of two time periods, 2005-06 and 2010-11, have been utilized. Father’s education, mother’s education, father’s occupation, region of residence, and gender have been used as the circumstance variable while labour earnings and household income per capita are outcome variables. Three indices of Generalized Entropy measures have been utilized to estimate inequality of opportunity. Results depict that inequality of opportunity in labour earnings declines by 11 percentage points in Pakistan, during study period. The inequality of opportunity, for household income per capita, declines by 16 percentage points for Pakistan. Among all circumstances, gender is the highest contributor followed by region of residence, father’s education, and father’s occupation.