| According to purchasing power parity,China's GDP reached US$19.7 trillion in 2017,and the GDP per capita reached US$14,150.China's economy has developed greatly since the reform and opening up.and people's living standard has improved significantly.at the same time.China is facing a very serious problem of income distribution inequality,and the excessive income distribution gap has become an important factor affecting China's economic development and social stability.The government has been committed to eliminating the inequality in distribution,but it still has not fundamentally reversed the trend of widening income distribution disparity.However,surveys show that people do not resent inequality in income distribution due to differences in effort compared to income inequality due to external factors such as race and family origin,with the implicit view that for a society to be just,what matters is equality of opportunity,not equality of end result.Thus the real challenge for the government is not how to eliminate the income inequality that exists in society,but how to accurately identify and eliminate the income inequality due to external factors.In this context,revealing the current situation of income inequality of opportunity among Chinese residents and further analyzing the internal logic of income inequality of opportunity generation among Chinese residents are of great significance for the policy formulation of reducing inequality of opportunity.Research on inequality of opportunity originated from political economists' critique of the traditional welfare paradigm.Building on philosophical discussions of inequality of opportunity by Rawls,Dworkin,and Sen,Roemer decomposes inequality into inequality of opportunity and inequality of effort.Based on Roemer's "environment-effort" binary analysis framework and CGSS survey data from 2005 to 2015,this paper systematically analyzes the current situation of inequality of income opportunities among Chinese residents,and systematically reveals the inner logic of the generation of inequality of income opportunities in China from the perspective of the factors,influencing mechanisms and formation paths of inequality of income opportunities among Chinese residents.It further reveals the internal logic of inequality of income opportunities in China from the perspectives of factors,influencing mechanisms and formation paths,and provides a theoretical basis for a comprehensive understanding of inequality of income opportunities and elimination of inequality of income opportunities in China.The structure and main research contents of this paper are divided into eight chapters,as follows.Chapter 1 is the introduction of this paper.It introduces the research background and significance of this paper,systematically reviews the relevant research literature on inequality of opportunity at home and abroad,clarifies the research content,research line and research method,and further explains the research innovation and future prospect of this paper.Chapter 2 introduces the theories and methods related to the study of inequality of opportunity.First,the theoretical basis of inequality of opportunity is introduced,including the philosophical connotation of inequality of opportunity and Roemer's binary analysis framework of "environment-effort";second,the principles of equal opportunity policy making are introduced,including the principle of compensation and the principle of reward.Secondly,the principles of equal opportunity policy making are introduced,including the principle of compensation and the principle of reward.The choice of environmental and effort variables and the choice of inequality indicators in studies related to opportunity inequality measurement are presented.Chapter 3 measures the inequality of income opportunities for Chinese residents.Based on the Roemer's "environment-effort" binary analysis framework introduced in the previous section,this chapter uses the parametric method to measure the absolute and relative inequality of opportunity across China and between provinces by combining the GCSS 2005-2015 microdata to explore the current situation of inequality of opportunity in China.In addition,this chapter also explores the urban-rural and gender heterogeneity of inequality of opportunity in China.Chapter 4 is a study on the measurement of regional differences in inequality of income opportunities of Chinese residents and their drivers.Using the inter-provincial inequality of residents' income opportunities measured in Chapter 3,the regional differences in inequality of residents' income opportunities in China and the sources of the differences are explored based on the Dagum Gini coefficient decomposition method,which decomposes the regional differences into inter-regional differences,intra-regional differences,and differences caused by hyper-variance density.The Dagum Gini coefficient decomposes regional differences into inter-regional differences,intra-regional differences,and differences caused by hyper-variance density.The drivers of regional differences are then explored based on a geographic detector statistical model.The selected drivers include the degree of marketization,government spending,foreign direct investment,the degree of globalization,and productivity.Chapter 5 is a study of the inequality-generating factors of opportunity in China.Firstly,the Shapely decomposition framework is used to decompose the inequality of income distribution into each income determinant;secondly,the inequality-generating factors of opportunity in China from 2005 to 2015,expressed in absolute and relative amounts,are analyzed in the full sample case to reveal the importance of each factor in the inequality-generating process of opportunity;finally,the urban-rural heterogeneity,gender Finally,the urban-rural heterogeneity,gender heterogeneity,and regional heterogeneity of the factors generating inequality of opportunity are further discussed to provide more references for eliminating inequality of opportunity.Chapter 6 is a study on the impact mechanism of inequality of opportunity in China based on the intergenerational perspective.This chapter analyzes the influence mechanisms of inequality of opportunity in China based on the intergenerational perspective and finds three influence mechanisms of inequality of opportunity based on the intergenerational perspective:first,the father's generation influences the individual's education level through his own education level,which affects the individual's income distribution level,and then influences the inequality of opportunity of income distribution of the offspring;second,the father's own social network,such as the parents' occupation Second,parents' own social networks,such as parents' occupation,social status and wealth,have important effects on individuals' employment and other factors,thus affecting individuals' income,and thus affecting individuals' inequality of income distribution opportunities;Third,children's return to education affects individuals' income level,and thus affecting individuals' inequality of income distribution opportunities.The three influencing mechanisms correspond to intergenerational educational elasticity,family network returns,and returns to education,respectively,and this chapter discusses this issue.Chapter 7 is a study of the formation paths of inequality of opportunity in China.This chapter first adopts the ex-ante semi-parametric method and constructs an analytical framework to explore the formation paths of inequality of opportunity in China by combining the decomposition method of Gini coefficient,which considers the inequality caused by residual term or luck in addition to environmental variables and effort variables.and decomposes income inequality into inequality of opportunity,inequality of effort,and inequality caused by residual term or luck;then,according to the differences in the formation paths of inequality of opportunity decomposed into direct path inequality of opportunity and indirect path inequality of opportunity;finally,the indirect path of inequality of opportunity formation continues to be decomposed into education level path and occupation type path,revealing the important role of education level and occupation type in the generation of indirect inequality of opportunity.Chapter 8 presents the research conclusions and research outlook.The main research findings are summarized,followed by the outlook for future research based on the shortcomings of existing studies.The innovations and main work of this paper are summarized as follows:(1)Constructed a framework for analyzing income inequality of opportunity.Based on the theoretical and methodological research related to inequality of opportunity,an analytical framework of inequality of income opportunity is constructed from the measurement of inequality of income opportunity of Chinese residents,the analysis of regional differences,sources and drivers of inequality of income opportunity and the logic of the inner generation of inequality of opportunity,which can also be used in inequality of opportunity in education and inequality of opportunity in medical services.The study of regional differences,sources and drivers of inequality of opportunity provides a reference for the formulation of policies to reduce inequality of opportunity in China at the macro level;the study of the internal generation logic of inequality of opportunity,represented by the factors,influencing mechanisms and formation paths of inequality of opportunity for Chinese residents,provides a reference for the formulation of policies to reduce inequality of opportunity in China at the micro level.The study of the factors of inequality of opportunity in China provides a theoretical basis for the formulation of policies to reduce inequality of opportunity in China at the micro level.(2)Improving the parametric measurement model of inequality of opportunity and measuring the full sample and inter-provincial inequality of opportunity in China from 2005-201 5.The parametric model incorporates the cross terms of environmental and effort variables into the income determination equation.Existing studies show that the environment will have an impact on individual effort,for example,more educated parents attach more importance to education,higher education means better types of occupations and higher income,parents will invest more resources in their children's education,and the increase in individual effort will reduce the income Therefore,the cross-section of environmental and effort factors is necessary.In addition,compared with the existing studies,this paper uses more sample years,selects more environmental variables and effort variables,and expresses the measurement results in absolute and relative amounts respectively,so the measurement results are more objective and comprehensive.(3)This paper is the first to measure the regional differences in inequality of opportunity among Chinese residents,the sources of differences,and the drivers.This paper decomposes regional disparities in inequality of opportunity into inter-regional disparities in inequality of opportunity,intra-regional disparities,and disparities caused by hyper-variance density based on the Dagum Gini coefficient decomposition framework,and the main source of regional disparities in inequality of opportunity for Chinese residents is inter-regional inequality of opportunity.The study of the drivers of regional inequality of opportunity in China is important for identifying the main factors that cause regional inequality of opportunity in China and putting forward targeted policy recommendations.(4)The formation mechanism of inequality of income opportunities of Chinese residents is systematically analyzed.In the study of the intrinsic formation mechanism of inequality of opportunity,the Shapely decomposition framework is used to analyze the generating factors of inequality of income opportunity of Chinese residents;three mechanisms of inequality of opportunity are identified based on the intergenerational perspective;the path of inequality of opportunity formation is explored based on the semi-parametric Gini coefficient decomposition framework. |
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