Inequality of opportunity in adult health in Colombia
This paper measures inequality of opportunity in adult health in Colombia using the 2010 Living Standards and Social Mobility Survey, a rich dataset that provides unique information about individual childhood circumstances in that country. Dissimilarity and Gini opportunity indexes are calculated to provide different measures of inequality of opportunity using a self reported variable for health status. The Shapley value decomposition is then used to estimate the contribution of early life circumstances such as parental background, region of origin and ethnicity to inequality of opportunity. The findings suggest that 8 to 10 of the circumstance driven opportunities distinctively enjoyed by those who are healthier should be redistributed or otherwise compensated in order to achieve equality of opportunity. Differences in household socio economic status during childhood and parental educational attainment appear to be the most salient dimensions of inequality of opportunity in adult health.