This paper proposes a measure of the contribution of unequal opportunities to earnings inequality. Drawing on the distinction between ‘circumstance’ and ‘effort’ variables in John Roemer’s work on equality of opportunity, we associate inequality of opportunities with five observed...

The Poverty Wars started with a coordinated series of skirmishes by the Centre for Independent Studies. One of their main criticism of income-based measures of poverty is that measurement error(i.e. under-reporting) is pronounced for low income earners, especially those who indicate they have an...

(english) It is not known to what extent welfare measures result from seasonal and geographical price differences rather than from differences in living standards across households. Using data from Rwanda in 1983, we show that the change in mean living standard indicators caused by local and...

The proportion of Australian workers who are employed on a part-time basis has almost trebled in the last thirty years to reach its current level of 28 per cent. Part-time work is one type of ‘non-standard’ employment that is viewed with concern for it is alleged that part-time jobs provide...

High and persistent unemployment has presented a major challenge for the welfare state from two directions. First, it has eroded the funding base and second, it has increased the demands on welfare programs because of the consequences for poverty and inequality resulting from high unemployment....