About the EOI

What is the Economic Opportunity Index?

How much opportunity do Americans have today compared to 25 years ago? How does opportunity compare across gender and racial groups? What will matter most in ensuring opportunity in America in the future?

Hope Street Group's Economic Opportunity Index (EOI) is a groundbreaking project that measures individual economic opportunity in the United States. The Index is a tool that policy makers, media, and citizens can rely on to assess the potential impact of policies such as health care, education and regulatory reform on economic opportunity for all Americans.

How do you define "economic opportunity"?

We define economic opportunity as expected lifetime real income, given effort:

• Expected - luck, individual circumstance, and societal change always play a role in economic outcomes.
• Lifetime - a single year might give us a misleading snapshot of one's overall circumstances.
• Real - adjusted for inflation.
• Income - concerned with economic opportunity, rather than non-economic opportunities such as freedom of expression.
• Given effort - individuals ultimately must choose whether to pursue available opportunities.

Why the Index matters

Economic opportunity, the foundation of our nation's identity and prosperity, varies considerably cross different groups of Americans as the legacy of economic and racial divisions leaves many with only limited access to education, health care, jobs, or capital. Hope Street Group is building the
Economic Opportunity Index as a means to help engage all Americans in a "real-time" debate about the most important drivers of economic opportunity for their future.

The Index will bring hard facts and solid, nonpartisan analysis to what is now a confused and polarized debate over whether we should "grow the pie" or "redistribute the pie." Hope Street Group believes that if we focus on what matters most in increasing opportunity, Americans will be more prosperous,
healthy, educated and prepared to compete in our dynamic global economy.

How the Index works

The Index is a weighted combination of indicators that have been shown to affect economic opportunity. Indicators cover the broad areas of macroeconomic growth and stability, policy and regulatory framework, labor market dynamism, asset ownership, human capital development and health and social safety net. The value of each indicator varies over time and across different segments
of the population, contributing to differences in economic opportunity.

Hope Street Group has developed an online environment for the economics and policy community, and the public at large, to critique, update, and continuously improve the Index over time, making it the living standard for "opportunity policy analysis."