소득불평등에 대한 기회불평등의 기여도 분석: 2000년대 한국경제를 중심으로

초록

This paper parametrically estimates the inequality of opportunity in Korea using the data set constructed from the Korea Labor and Income Panel Studies for the period of 2000～2012. Our research has resulted in three distinct conclusions. First, we find that the absolute value of unequal opportunity is between 0.04 and 0.052 and the relative share of the inequality of opportunity in earnings inequality ranges from 18% to 23%. That is, approximately, one fifth of the income inequality is caused by the inequality of opportunity. Second, difference in gender plays more important role in the unequal opportunity than family backgrounds in Korea. Specifically, the inequality of opportunity in Korea by the different circumstances has been mainly affected by gender wage gaps in labor market, whereas the inequality of opportunity between women has decreased due to the rising college enrollment rate and labor market participation of women. Also, this has led to reduce the inequality of opportunity in the full sample including men and women. However, the inequality of opportunity of men aged 30s has deteriorated for the last 10 years. Third, decomposing the inequality into direct effect (the effect of circumstance on earnings) and indirect effect (the effect of circumstance on earnings through efforts), which works through the effort variables, the former accounts for the 83.3% of the increase of unequal opportunity of men aged 30s for the last 10 years. It means that the recent aggravation of the inequality of opportunity has been largely driven by the direct effect of circumstances such as father’s education on the inequality of opportunity. This research also suggests the policies to reduce income inequality, the policies for the quality of employment and the expansion of government expenditure on public education to improve the equality of opportunity

키워드