Inequality of Opportunity: Case Study of Kazakhstan

This paper seeks to measure the influence of personal circumstances and inequality of opportunity on income and employment status in Kazakhstan. It identifies individual effort and circumstances as determinants. The analysis suggests that the higher education variable explains about one-third and one-fifth of the variations in income and employment status, respectively. The paper tests (and rejects) the hypothesis that the final outcomes of income and employment status are not affected by cultural identity with the Russian ethnicity used as a proxy. The analysis is based on the Household Budget Survey conducted by the Agency of Statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2003 and 2005. It applies ordinary least squares and logit models and calculates Gini coefficients for all the regions of Kazakhstan using predicted incomes based on the individual factors affecting the final outcomes. The study shows that the Russian ethnicity variable is associated with higher income and better employment prospects in Kazakhstan, which suggests that there is scope for policy measures to improve opportunities for other language groups.