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Key Text Horizontal Inequality: Two Types of Trap

Author: Frances Stewart
Date: 2009
Size: 27 pages (300 kB)

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Summary

Why do group inequalities often persist over the long term, and how can they be addressed? Group membership matters because well-being is affected both by individual circumstances and how well the group is doing. Strong complementarities among (1) capabilities and (2) capitals explain persistent group inequality. Multiple deprivations in capabilities and assets prevent catch-up without special interventions. Addressing HIs therefore requires governments to go beyond eliminating current, formal discrimination: the weak asset and capabilities base arising from past discrimination must also be tackled. As social and cultural capital inequalities cannot be eliminated by policy, strong affirmative action in other areas such as education and employment is justified.

HIs are important both because of the negative impact on the individual's self-perception, as the group informs individuals' identities, and for more wide-ranging reasons. If a significant proportion of society is denied fair opportunities, economic efficiency is likely to be impaired, and poverty reduction and human rights improvements are impeded. Group inequality is also a source of violent conflict.

Poverty/inequality traps for both individuals and groups are caused by inter-relationships among different capabilities, and among different kinds of capital. The capabilities trap and the capital poverty trap also reinforce each other.

Capability interactions: Adults with low capabilities (in health, education and nutrition) tend to have low earnings and larger families, resulting in the intergenerational transmission of these outcomes. The capability inequality trap arises because each capability tends to promote other capabilities and is related to a person's (or group's) productivity and income, which in turn affects capabilities.
Interactions among capitals: Likewise, if household income means access to a variety of capital types (human, physical, social, and attitudinal), poor households have relatively poor access to them, and poorer returns. This results in less schooling, land, and fewer financial assets. In the capital poverty trap, then, access to each type of capital affects returns to other types, with more access by an individual or group to one type tending to increase returns on other types (and conversely).

Group inequality is more persistent than individual inequality because of:

Asymmetries in social capital: Intra-group contacts are generally greater than inter-group ones; poorer group individuals are likely to be networking with others within their group, restricting their access to jobs, inputs, markets and so on.
Asymmetries in cultural/attitudinal capital: Attitudes towards education and economic activities tend to be heavily influenced by the group, and different groups are more or less likely to encourage behaviour that increases social mobility.
Discrimination: All forms of discrimination seem to apply to poorer groups, including within educational admissions, legal access and treatment, and the standard and frequency of public infrastructural improvements.
Political powerlessness: Political HIs are relevant because the political system can act either to correct inequalities, or to reinforce disadvantage.

The self-reinforcing nature of many HIs suggests that they are not easy to tackle; special and wide-ranging interventions are required. While addressing capability deficiencies appears straightforward, effective policies must also tackle capital concerns. Developing policy towards social and cultural capital is problematic.

Given the difficulties in reversing cultural and social capital inequalities, policies must adopt a bias in favour of poorer groups. Similarly, groups with lower capabilities require more resources than richer ones (such as educational expenditure and quality of teachers). Where policy can provide strong affirmative action, it should do so to compensate for those gaps in capital inequality.
State action must go beyond eliminating formal discrimination, as this will not overcome the weak asset base and weak capabilities resulting from past discrimination.
The quantity and quality of capital depends on the nature of networks. While policies may outlaw overt discrimination and promote integrated institutions, they cannot prevent people choosing with whom they interact. Therefore, until economic differences between groups are eliminated, some network inequalities will remain.
Particular groups have different aspirations, and devote different resources to the accumulation of various types of capital. The state can use the education system and media to influence these, but who is entitled to decide what the 'right' aspirations and accumulation strategies are?
Lack of political power is often both a feature of poor groups and a contributory cause of their poverty. Political reform together with strong political movements among deprived groups may be essential for securing effective and comprehensive action.

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Source: Stewart F., 2009, 'Horizontal Inequality: Two Types of Trap', Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, vol. 10, no. 3, pp.315-340
Author: Frances Stewart , frances.stewart[at]qeh.ox.ac.uk