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Abstract
The academic literature on equality of opportunity has burgeoned. More recently, the concepts
and measures have begun to be used by policy institutions, including in specific sectors like
health and education. Indeed, it is argued that one advantage of focusing on equality of
opportunity is that policy makers are more responsive to that discourse than on equality of
outcomes per se. This paper presents a critique of equality of opportunity in the policy context.
While the empirical analysis to which the literature has given rise is useful and is to be
welcomed, current methods for quantifying and implementing the concept with a view to
informing the policy discourse face a series of fundamental questions that remain unanswered.
Without a full appreciation of these difficulties, these methods may prove to be misleading in the
policy context.