Racial Disparities In Wealth Research Articles

High-Deductible Health Insurance May Exacerbate Racial And Ethnic Wealth Disparities.

This study examined the equity implications of high-deductible health plans within the context of racial and ethnic wealth disparities. Using restricted data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, we evaluated the net worth (in 2011-18) and financial assets (in 2011-16) of families with private insurance and those in high-deductible health plans with and without an associated health savings account. Our results represent, to our knowledge, the first estimates of racial and ethnic wealth disparities within these populations. Results show that White households consistently held significantly more wealth than did Black and Hispanic households across income levels. In the lowest income quartile, White privately insured families had more than 350percent more in financial assets than their Black counterparts. Low-income Black and Hispanic families with high-deductible health plans but no savings accounts had median financial assets ($2,200 and $2,000, respectively) that were well below the average family coverage deductible. Study findings highlight the role of systemic racial wealth disparities, beyond that of income, to establish a unique pathway whereby high deductibles can exacerbate health care inequities.

Setting the Record Straight on Racial Wealth Inequality

The racial wealth gap in the United States is the object of much misrepresentation and misunderstanding. Our paper is intended to provide a corrective. We will address how the mainstream economic view of the drivers of racial disparities in wealth is a human capital view that promotes anti-Black and personal responsibility narratives while ignoring the significance of the racially uneven transmission of resources across generations. It also fails to acknowledge the cumulative impact of US racial history on present wealth gaps.

The Limits of Limited Equity Cooperatives: Opportunities and Obstacles to Increasing Black Homeownership and Decreasing the Racial Wealth Gap in Washington D.C.

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on recent governmental initiatives in Washington, D.C. to bolster the long-term physical and financial viability of its limited-equity cooperative housing stock. Drawing on in-depth interviews with members of the DC Limited Equity Cooperative Taskforce, it interrogates the relationship between recent municipal housing policy and the growing asset-based racial wealth gap. The findings indicate that limited-equity cooperatives provide myriad benefits to their residents, yet ultimately fail to curb systemic limitations on black wealth in the property market and rectify historical patterns of racial disparity in the distribution of governmental resources. This paper argues that policy makers must proactively assess how new models of shared equity homeownership affect or even perpetuate racial disparities in wealth and continuously interrogate the structural impacts of affordable housing policy on the (re)distribution of resources in urban centers.

Making the City of Lakes: Whiteness, Nature, and Urban Development in Minneapolis

Minneapolis has the twin distinctions of having one of the most highly rated park systems in the United States and some of the most pronounced racial disparities in wealth and homeownership. We argue that this coupling of urban nature and racial inequality was intentionally produced by the city’s real estate industry and local government. Drawing on Mapping Prejudice’s first complete metro-wide map of racial covenants—clauses in property deeds barring sale to anyone not considered white—we pair quantitative spatial analysis with archival research on turn-of-the century greening campaigns and local real estate practices. We use two developments, Nokomis Terrace and Walton Hills, as illustrative examples of the ways in which developers worked with civil society organizations and local government agencies to secure public investments in green amenities, including gardens and public parks, while blanketing their developments with racial covenants. To boost property values, developers paired “greenness” and legal guarantees of whiteness, engineering idealized nature while excluding racialized groups. The result was that 73 percent of park acreage added from 1910 to 1955, the period in which covenants were used in Minneapolis, had at least one racial covenant within 0.1 miles. Our research links urban greening, racialization, housing discrimination, and environmental injustice with consequences for understanding and confronting environmental inequalities today.

Racial and Community Wealth Disparity the Bane of HBCUs - A Wealth Ecology Model Relational Perspective

Racial wealth disparities in the U.S. continues to persist despite community, state and federal governments programs to arrest the slide. Contemporary community wealth creation approaches using anchor institutions concepts to bridge the gap assume the wealth improvement duality of the community and the anchor institution coming together with external agents of support. For an HBCU (Historical Black Colleges and Universities) as anchor institution, the improvement duality assumption links its fortunes with that of its community served. The study performs a regression analysis to determine the degree of the relationship and its direction. Measured African American family wealth status using the SCF data on median US household wealth and HBCU school choice by annual enrollment numbers from NCES digest of educational statistics, the analysis yields significant positive effects of student wealth status on HBCU school choice.

Can baby bonds address the injustice of racial wealth disparities?

The injustices that have been visited upon racial minorities in the United States have a substantial economic legacy, both in terms of wealth disparities and resulting structural differences in economic opportunities. In response, some prominent Black scholars and policymakers have proposed a ‘baby bonds’ wealth-building policy. In this paper, I complement the economic justifications for this policy by examining the case for the proposal in terms of racial justice. The common justifications in the literature use a ‘justice as rectification’ framework, but this framework is a poor fit for the baby bonds proposal, unless we first examine the policy as a way to mitigate barriers to economic opportunity caused by persistent wealth gaps. This analysis focuses the case for baby bonds on their real selling point: a universal wealth policy can limit the intergenerational impact of injustice and misfortune of all kinds.

Does Homeownership Reduce Wealth Disparities for Low-Income and Minority Households?

Abstract We use the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Housing Choice Voucher program as a setting to evaluate the interaction of homeownership and race on the wealth accumulation of low-income households. Using a within-treatment difference-in-differences framework, we establish that low-income households that receive assistance in owning a home experience increased wealth accumulation relative to their tenure as renters. These wealth gains are not present among low-income minority households. Our findings provide evidence that homeownership is a driver of wealth formation for low-income households and that homeownership does not inherently reduce racial disparities in wealth. (JEL G51, J15, R21).

Mental health care among marginalized populations in the United States

Mental health care among marginalized populations in the United States

Born Without a Silver Spoon: Race, Wealth, and Unintended Childbearing.

The United States has a surprisingly high rate of unintended fertility, particularly among women of color. Although studies have examined socioeconomic correlates of unintended fertility, the role of economic resources remains unclear. Wealth may provide an important context for whether a birth was intended or unintended. Moreover, staggering racial wealth disparities may contribute to racial/ethnic patterns of unintended childbearing. This study examines the linkages between wealth and unintended first births, drawing on data from the NLSY79 (N = 1508). Results suggest that net wealth is negatively related to the probability of having an unintended first birth, controlling for a host of sociodemographic characteristics. We also use decomposition analysis to quantify wealth's contribution to racial/ethnic disparities in unintended childbearing. Second only to marital status, differences in net wealth account for 9-17% of racial/ethnic disparities in unintended childbearing. Our results suggest that wealth is a significant and heretofore overlooked correlate of unintended childbearing.

How Measurement of Inequalities in Wealth by Race/Ethnicity Impacts Narrative and Policy: Investigating the Full Distribution

In recent decades, analysts and researchers have expanded understanding of economic security by adding wealth to traditional income measures of economic security, documenting substantial and growing inequalities in wealth in the USA that exceed notable income inequalities. Racial disparities in wealth have been well-documented and represent a major barrier to economic equality for communities of color. However, while the racial wealth gap is typically measured at the median due to the substantial skew of the wealth distribution, much remains unknown about racial disparities across the wealth distribution. This study aims to advance analytic discussions about measurement of racial wealth disparities examining recent trends in wealth by race/ethnicity using a more complete view of the wealth distribution. Using the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) from 2001 to 2013, results reveal that racial wealth disparities across the distribution are even more widespread than an examination of central tendencies alone can observe. Also, while all households experienced notable wealth declines in recent years during the Great Recession, African American and Latino households across the distribution of wealth were particularly affected. From 2007 to 2013, the 75th percentile of wealth for African Americans and Latinos fell by approximately 50%, while losses for whites at the third quartile were just 15%. Similar differences in impacts of the economic downturn are seen across the distribution. Examination of net worth trends over the period reveals that losses were disproportionally experienced by households of color across the wealth distribution.

Racial disparities in life insurance coverage

ABSTRACTWe evaluate the extent to which there are racial disparities in life insurance coverage using multiple years of the Survey of Income and Program Participation between 2001 and 2010. We find that African Americans hold significantly more life insurance – especially whole life insurance – after controlling for other factors. We demonstrate that our findings diverge from prior work because we examine all households instead of focusing exclusively on married and cohabitating households. Although earning shocks due to mortality likely contribute to racial disparities in wealth, the influence is mitigated by the racial composition of life insurance holdings.

Polluting Black space.

Social psychologists have long demonstrated that people are stereotyped on the basis of race. Researchers have conducted extensive experimental studies on the negative stereotypes associated with Black Americans in particular. Across 4 studies, we demonstrate that the physical spaces associated with Black Americans are also subject to negative racial stereotypes. Such spaces, for example, are perceived as impoverished, crime-ridden, and dirty (Study 1). Moreover, these space-focused stereotypes can powerfully influence how connected people feel to a space (Studies 2a, 2b, and 3), how they evaluate that space (Studies 2a and 2b), and how they protect that space from harm (Study 3). Indeed, processes related to space-focused stereotypes may contribute to social problems across a range of domains-from racial disparities in wealth to the overexposure of Blacks to environmental pollution. Together, the present studies broaden the scope of traditional stereotyping research and highlight promising new directions. (PsycINFO Database Record

News Briefs

Brown‐Forman awards $1 million for Speed Art Museum. GlaxoSmithKline awards $1 million under Healthcare Innovation Awards. Wells Fargo awards $7 million for microloan program. Microsoft employees raise record $125 million in 2015. JPMorgan Chase awards $2 million to address racial wealth disparities. Bechtel to continue signature partnerships with STEM education partners. Salesforce pledges $5 million to fight AIDS. Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation awards $250,000 for career training initiative.

The Vulnerability of Minority Homeowners in the Housing Boom and Bust

This paper examines mortgage outcomes for a large sample of individual home purchases and refinances linked to credit scores in seven major US markets. Among those with similar credit scores and loan attributes, black and Hispanic homeowners had much higher rates of delinquency and default in the downturn. These estimated differences are especially pronounced for loans originated near the peak of the housing boom. These findings suggest that black and Hispanic homeowners drawn into the market near the peak were especially vulnerable to adverse economic shocks and raise concerns about homeownership as a mechanism for reducing racial disparities in wealth. (JEL D14, J15, R23, R31, R38)

A Wealth of Inequalities: Mass Incarceration, Employment, and Racial Disparities in U.S. Household Wealth, 1996 to 2011

Despite the strong relationship between the rise in mass incarceration over the last forty years and racial inequality in employment and wages, few studies have examined the long-term consequences and spillover effects of criminal justice contact on the black-white wealth gap in the United States. In this paper, we investigate the mechanisms whereby the local and distal incarceration of a family member affects household wealth, focusing on wealth disparities by race and education. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), the Current Population Survey, and the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities and Local Jails, we apply fixed-effects and probit models to estimate how a family member’s incarceration influences household assets and debt over panel waves. We find that having an incarcerated family member reduced household assets by 64.3 percent and debt by 85.1 percent after we adjusted for the underrepresentation of institutionalization in SIPP data. We also discuss these findings in the context of broader racial disparities in wealth and employment. Our findings demonstrate how contemporary patterns of mass incarceration contribute to the maintenance of social inequality in wealth and form barriers to economic security for other household members.

Inequalities at the Outset: Racial, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Differences in Parents’ Perceptions of Paying for College

Using NELS data I examine parents’ perceptions of paying for college before their students enter high school. Findings suggest that racial wealth disparities may help explain differences in parents’ perceptions of paying. In addition, Hispanics and low-income families are less likely to have information about financial aid and more likely to report that their child will need to earn money for college. The results suggest that while availability of funds may most affect African Americans parents’ perceptions of paying for college, lack of money and lack of information define the perceptions of Hispanic and low-income parents.

Growing Farther Apart: Racial and Ethnic Inequality in Household Wealth Across the Distribution

This article investigates net worth disparities by race and ethnicity using pooled data from the 1998–2013 waves of the U.S. Survey of Consumer Finances. I apply unconditional quantile regression models to examine net worth throughout the wealth distribution and decomposition procedures to demonstrate how different factors related to demographics, human capital, financial attitudes, and credit market access contribute to racial wealth disparities. In the aggregate, non-Hispanic black households held $8,000 less in net worth than non-Hispanic white households at the 10th percentile, $204,000 less at the median, and $1,055,000 at the 90th percentile. Hispanic households faced similar disadvantages, holding $4,000 less in net worth at the 10th percentile, $208,000 less at the median, and $1,023,000 less at the 90th percentile. Disparities continued, but declined, after accounting for labor market disadvantages and credit market access, which again varied across the distribution. Decomposition models show that demographic and income differences mattered more for high-wealth households. These variables accounted for 43–55 percent of the gap for high-wealth households at the 90th percentile but only 10–28 percent at the 10th percentile. Among low-wealth households, differential access to credit markets and homeownership was associated with a larger proportion of the gap in net worth.

Racial Disparities in Life Insurance Coverage

We evaluate the extent to which there are racial disparities in life insurance coverage using multiple years of the Survey of Income and Program Participation between 2001 and 2010. We find that African-Americans hold significantly more life insurance after controlling for other factors, especially employer-sponsored and whole life insurance. We demonstrate that our findings diverge from prior work because we examine all households instead of focusing exclusively on married and cohabitating households. The findings on life insurance coverage and composition imply that earnings shocks due to mortality are not a contributing factor to racial disparities in wealth.

Return to Being Black, Living in the Red: A Race Gap in Wealth That Goes Beyond Social Origins

In the United States, racial disparities in wealth are vast, yet their causes are only partially understood. In Being Black, Living in the Red, Conley (1999) argued that the sociodemographic traits of young blacks and their parents, particularly parental wealth, wholly explain their wealth disadvantage. Using data from the 1980-2009 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, I show that this conclusion hinges on the specific sample considered and the treatment of debtors in the sample. I further document that prior research has paid insufficient attention to the possibility of variation in the association between wealth and race at different points of the net worth distribution. Among wealth holders, blacks remain significantly disadvantaged in assets compared with otherwise similar whites. Among debtors, however, young whites hold more debt than otherwise similar blacks. The results suggest that, among young adults, debt may reflect increased access to credit, not simply the absence of assets. The asset disadvantage for black net wealth holders also indicates that research and policy attention should not be focused only on young blacks "living in the red."

South Central Farmers and Shadow Hills Homeowners: Land Use Policy and Relational Racialization in Los Angeles*

This article draws from the recent relational turn in geography to develop a model of relational racialization. It argues that racism functions through the legal and discursive production of linked, interdependent, and unequal places. By comparing two social movements in Los Angeles, the South Central Farmers and the Shadow Hills homeowners, I examine two spatial discourses through which race is relationally reproduced: unequal abilities to mobilize the entitlements of “property rights” and unequal claims to represent hegemonic forms of local heritage. When materialized and naturalized in land use policy, these discourses re-create racial disparities in wealth and poverty and reproduce the qualitative nature of the physical places on which racism depends.