Ex Ante Versus Ex Post Equality of Opportunity

Abstract

We study the difference between the ex post and ex ante perspectives in equality of opportunity. We show that the well documented conflicts between compensation and reward are but an aspect of a broader conflict between ex ante and ex post perspectives. The literature that takes the goal of providing equal opportunities as the guiding principle generally considers that this is implemented only when, ex post, all individuals with the same effort obtain equal success. It is easy to believe that ex ante compensation is another natural embodiment of the same idea. We show that this is not true.