Inequality of Opportunity in South Caucasus

Fuchs, Alan ; Tiwari, Sailesh ; Shidiq, Akhmad Rizal

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: INTERGENERATIONAL MOBILITY;    INEQUALITY;    EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY;    EDUCATION;    EMPLOYMENT;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8432
RP-ID  :  WPS8432

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper discusses equality ofopportunity in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, with anemphasis on access to labor market opportunities. Itdevelops an inequality of opportunity index on access togood jobs and decomposes the contributing factors in theprevailing inequality. Then, it discusses the extent towhich inequality in accessing human capital inputs amongindividuals during the early formative years may affectaccess to good jobs. The main takeaways are as follows.First, connections play an important role in obtainingaccess to good jobs in the South Caucasus, highlighting theunfairness in processes in the sub-region's labormarkets. Second, access to good jobs—defined as work for 20hours or more a week and work under contract or withtenure—is low in the South Caucasus in comparison with otherparts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Third, even amongpeople who have access to these jobs, the share of the totalinequality of opportunity that may be characterized asunfair is relatively high. Armenia and Azerbaijan stand outfor the significant share of inequality in access to goodjobs associated with gender differences. Fourth, theanalysis on access to education and basic human capitalinputs in the earlier, formative stages of life shows thatlearning performance in the South Caucasus tends to be poorand unequal across the life circumstances of children.Nonetheless, the coverage rates of basic human capitalinputs are generally high; the relatively narrowinequalities arise mostly from spatial disparities. Theseresults indicate that addressing the deep structuralinequalities shaping the landscape of opportunity in theSouth Caucasus must be a key consideration in any strategyto share prosperity sustainably.