Research | Projects

DOING RAWLS JUSTICE: A NON-PARAMETRIC ESTIMATION STRATEGY

To the extent that egalitarianism of opportunities or egalitarianism of outcomes is spoused, any attempt to reconcile distributive judgments is deemed to failure, as the former focuses on the origins of inequalities whereas the latter is grounded on the consequences of economic inequalities. In this research project we propose a more general approach by which any pairwise disparity is said to be legitimate or illegitimate depending on both the origins and the consequences of inequality. In this way of thinking, we suggest that Rawls’ approach - based on the “fair equality of opportunity” and the “difference principle” - is a better starting-gate for both (i) the identification of legitimate social and economic inequalities, and (ii) the measurement of distributive justice (equity). The contribution of this research intends to be both methodological and empirical. From a methodological point of view, we propose a pragmatical approach by which Rawlsian inequity can be (non-parametrically) estimated from income distributions. In this scenario, any pairwise disparity is said to be legitimate if it is (i) “attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity”, and (ii) “to the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged members of society ” (Rawls, 2001). As such, Rawls’ meritocracy is defined in a broader setting where both (i) fairness of inequality origins, and (ii) goodness of inequality consequences for the society as a whole, are simultaneously required. From an empirical point of view, given the separation between social and natural circumstances that is innervating Rawls’ thought (Sugden 1993), US income distributions will be compared over time in terms of both Rawlsian inequity and its contribution to overall inequality. Our results will be compared with existing evidences on Roemer’s inequity as measured in the view of egalitarianism of opportunity. REFERENCES Rawls, J.: Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, E. Kelly (ed.), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, (2001). Sugden, R.:, Welfare, resources and capabilities: A review of inequality reexamined by Amartya Sen, Journal of Economic Literature, 31 , 1947–1962 (1993).