òòò½Íø Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
Not Playing Favorites: Parents and the Value of Equal Opportunity
òòò½Íø Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 17,
no. 3, July 2025
(pp. 117–60)
Abstract
We conduct two experiments to identify the value parents place on equality of opportunity when investing in children. The experiments exogenously vary short-run returns to educational investments to identify the weight placed on equalizing "opportunity" (child-level investment) relative to maximizing "returns" (total household earnings) or to equalizing "outcomes" (child-level expected earnings). While parents in both experiments place some weight on maximizing returns, they also display a strong preference for equalizing opportunities and are willing to forgo 15–45 percent of their earnings to do so. Parents in higher-income countries also care about equalizing outcomes, while parents in lower-income countries do not.Citation
Berry, James, Rebecca Dizon-Ross, and Maulik Jagnani. 2025. "Not Playing Favorites: Parents and the Value of Equal Opportunity." òòò½Íø Journal: Applied Economics 17 (3): 117–60. DOI: 10.1257/app.20220601Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D63 Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
- J12 Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration