Economic Theory and Business Management ›› 2025, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (2): 75-95.

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Equality of Opportunity in Wealth and Common Prosperity:Measurement and Decomposition of the Inequality of Opportunity

  

  1. Institute of Economics,Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
  • Online:2025-03-12 Published:2025-02-16

财富机会公平与共同富裕:基于机会不平等的测度与分解

  

  1. 中国社会科学院经济研究所
  • 基金资助:
    本文得到国家社会科学基金项目“机会平等视角下共同富裕的内涵、测度与实现路径研究”(22BJL083)的资助。

Abstract: This paper studies inequality of opportunity in wealth in China using data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) The variables influencing wealth outcomes are divided into two categories:environmental factors and effort factors Using regression methods,the article analyzes the impact of environmental factors and effort factors on total wealth,housing wealth,and financial wealth We measure inequality of opportunity in total wealth,housing wealth and financial wealth in China and apply the Shapley decomposition method to decompose the relative contribution of various factors affecting inequality of opportunity in wealth 
Our substantial findings are as follows:According to Roemer (1998),absolute inequality of opportunity (IOP) in total wealth is 0490,relative IOP in total wealth is 4906%;absolute IOP in housing wealth is 0555,relative IOP in housing wealth is 5080%;absolute IOP in financial wealth is 0524,relative IOP in financial wealth is 2591% According to Barry (2005),absolute IOP in total wealth is 0421,relative IOP in total wealth is 4217%;absolute IOP in housing wealth is 0486,relative IOP in housing wealth is 4452%;absolute IOP in financial wealth is 0381,relative IOP in financial wealth is 1883% 
According to the Shapley decomposition results,fathers education level,fathers income,number of properties owned and GDP per capita are significant environmental variables contributing to inequality of opportunity in total wealth,housing wealth and financial wealth
During different quantiles,inequalities of opportunity in housing wealth and financial wealth are all asymmetrical U shape Inequality of opportunity in wealth is more serious for the lower bounds of wealth distribution,even worse for the upper bounds The lower bounds of housing wealth and the middle parts of financial wealth are more sensitive to the effects of family backgrounds and GDP per capita
Compared to existing literature,the main contributions of this paper are as follows:First,this paper uses 2019 CHFS data to study the new situation of the inequality of opportunities in wealth in China,applies the Roemer (1998) and Barry (2005) model to measure the upper and lower bounds of the inequality of opportunities in wealth in China Second,this paper studies the wealth composition,ie the inequality of opportunities in total wealth,housing wealth and financial wealth,and identifies the sources of inequality of opportunities in wealth Third,this paper discusses the heterogeneity of the inequality of opportunities in wealth,not only the urbanrural heterogeneity,but also the heterogeneity between different bounds of wealth distribution
The study suggests that the government should eliminate opportunity barriers caused by various environmental factors,promoting fairness in wealth opportunities In the process of achieving common prosperity with a focus on equality of opportunity,targeted interventions should be implemented for different wealth groups 


Key words: wealth distribution, inequality of opportunity, Shapley decomposition, common prosperity

摘要: 党的二十届三中全会强调完善促进机会公平制度机制。本文基于中国家庭金融调查数据,使用Roemer(1998)和Barry(2005)两种框架,测算了我国财富机会不平等程度,并用夏普里分解方法考察了影响财富机会不平等的重要因素;在此基础上,本文分析了财富机会不平等的城乡异质性,并将财富均值的机会不平等扩展到财富分布的机会不平等。结果发现,家庭财富机会不平等问题确实存在:住房财富机会不平等程度最高、金融财富机会不平等程度最低、总财富机会不平等程度居中;财富机会不平等存在明显的城乡异质性,相比于农村居民,城镇居民内部财富机会更不平等;父亲受教育程度、父亲收入、拥有房产数量和地区经济发展水平是影响财富机会不平等的重要环境因素;此外,住房财富和金融财富机会不平等随财富分位组由低到高呈现不对称的U形形态,这意味着我国家庭财富机会不平等可能存在极化现象。在推进中国式现代化、实现共同富裕过程中,本文的研究为政府促进家庭财富机会均等和实现共同富裕提供了一定的参考。


关键词: 财富分配, 机会不平等, 夏普里分解, 共同富裕