Resource Category: Studies of Wealth Inequity
There has been much research activity in the past regarding disparities in income, educational attainment, career progression, etc. disaggregated by race, but studies of wealth as a measure of net household assets are comparatively rare. The pieces in this category represent some of the best new research on wealth with a racial equity lens.
Highlighting Key Studies of Racial Wealth Inequity
Often when we think of economic inequality, we think of gaps in income. While income is an important driver of economic inequality, wealth is just as important, if not more so.
Wealth disparities are three times the size of income disparities in the U.S. Wealth, which represents a family’s assets minus their debt, allows families to bounce back from economic hardships and plan for the future. The absence of wealth limits opportunities and often forces families to rely on debt in the case of an unexpected emergency.
The reports in this section explore the best available data on wealth in America, often disaggregating by race, income, educational attainment, and geography. Many of these resources look at trends over time, trying to assess whether or not we’ve made progress in boosting assets for lower-wealth families or narrowing the distribution.
Reports elsewhere in this resource center investigate dynamics specific to individual components of wealth — like homeownership, business ownership, and retirement — but the resources here all aim to take a more crosscutting view, analyzing trends in net asset levels.
Resource Summaries
Wealth Inequality by Age / Wealth Inequality by Race and Ethnicity in the Post-Pandemic Era
By By Rajashri Chakrabarti, Natalia Emanuel, and Ben Lahey
In this two-part series on wealth inequality out of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the authors work to understand how net worth has changed for Americans during and coming out of the pandemic. Expanding on Survey of Consumer Finances data by linking individual level records to financial accounts, the series’ charts the growth in net worth from 2019 through the first half of 2023 across age as well as race and ethnicity.
In this two-part series on wealth inequality out of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the authors work to understand how net worth has changed for Americans during and coming out of the pandemic. Expanding on Survey of Consumer Finances data by linking individual level records to financial accounts, the series’ charts the growth in net worth from 2019 through the first half of 2023 across age as well as race and ethnicity.
In Wealth Inequality by Age in the Post-Pandemic Era, they find that wealth grew most rapidly for 18-39 year-olds, driven mostly by appreciation of individual business assets. Though these equities are more volatile, the authors suggest that individuals further from retirement may be more likely to invest in them due to the potential for increased returns. Still, they are not able to definitively say why this shift towards equities occurred. Older age groups, by contrast, held larger shares in mutual funds, which tended to be more stable over this period.
Understanding change in wealth by race and ethnicity is more complicated, as the authors find that while net worth for all racial groups (in Racial and Ethnic Wealth Inequality in the Post-Pandemic Era), grew in the first year of the pandemic, this growth quickly slowed for Black individuals by late 2022, and has since reversed itself and fallen below 2019 levels of wealth by the end of the first half of 2023. These data stand in contrast to findings presented by the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), which suggest that net worth grew for all groups over a similar period. However, the latest SCF data was collected from March through December of 2022, which may have masked more rapid shifts evidenced in these datasets. Indeed, the inclusion of wealth data from the first half of 2023 is a new addition to our understanding of wealth not available in the SCF.
‘Read More’ link directs you to “Part 1: Racial and Ethnic Wealth Inequality in the Post-Pandemic Era”
Wealth Surged in the Pandemic, but Debt Endures for Poorer Black and Hispanic Families
By Rakesh Kochhar, Mohamad Moslimani
Using newly released data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, Pew finds that wealth grew for most American households from 2019 to 2021, in part likely a result of new and expanded government support programs during the pandemic. Data from this new SIPP analysis are less current than data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, which goes up to 2022, but the SIPP sample size is larger, allowing for more detailed demographic analysis.
Using newly released data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, Pew finds that wealth grew for most American households from 2019 to 2021, in part likely a result of new and expanded government support programs during the pandemic. Data from this new SIPP analysis are less current than data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, which goes up to 2022, but the SIPP sample size is larger, allowing for more detailed demographic analysis.
The authors find that this overall growth helped close wealth gaps between and within racial groups across the pandemic, and that of all groups, the gap between richer and poorer Black households closed the most. While proportional wealth gaps closed for most groups, most of the increases in real dollar terms still accrued to richer households. Further analyses in this report focus on breaking out households by asset class and value, and the finding that the 60 percent of wealth held by Black and Hispanic homeowners is thanks to the equity they have in their homes.
Closing the Latino wealth gap: Exploring regional differences and lived experiences
By Tonantzin Carmona, Noreen M. Sugrue
In this report, researchers from the Brookings Institution examine Latino wealth, highlighting the diverse experiences of Latinos in the United States. Part 1 of the report uses the 2021 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to analyze regional differences in the Latino-white wealth gap and explore relative differences in wealth across Latinos in different parts of the U.S.
In this report, researchers from the Brookings Institution examine Latino wealth, highlighting the diverse experiences of Latinos in the United States. Part 1 of the report uses the 2021 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to analyze regional differences in the Latino-white wealth gap and explore relative differences in wealth across Latinos in different parts of the U.S.
Part 2 of the report presents findings from community conversations with Latinos from lower-wealth backgrounds. The qualitative research findings indicate that participants aspire to save and build wealth but have to prioritize immediate financial needs like rent and income; participants conceptualize their income as their main form of wealth building and working harder as their best avenue for building more wealth; participants were wary of debt and loan products but, when faced with financial emergency, they resort to loans from family or friends or credit cards; and participants relied on children for financial support in retirement due to lack of savings. The report ends with policy solutions that could help build immediate financial security among Latinos while also facilitating wealth-building and economic mobility.
Nine Charts about Wealth Inequality in America
By Various Authors
Black wealth is increasing, but so is the racial wealth gap
By Andre M. Perry, Hannah Stephens and Manann Donoghoe
Racial Wealth Gains and Gaps: Nine Facts About the Disparities
By Kristen Broady, Anthony Barr, Darlene Booth-Bell, and Lucas Cain
Racial and Ethnic Wealth Inequality in the Post‑Pandemic Era
By By Rajashri Chakrabarti, Natalia Emanuel, and Ben Lahey
Wealth Inequality by Age in the Post‑Pandemic Era
By Rajashri Chakrabarti, Natalia Emanuel, and Ben Lahey
The Rising Importance of Stock-Linked Assets in the Black-White Wealth Gap
By Ken-Hou Lin and Guillermo Dominguez
Racial Wealth Equity Research and Conversation Series: Baby Bonds
By Dr. Darrick Hamilton, Erick Russell, Alayna Van Tassel, Kelly Harrington
Recent Evolution of Retirement Readiness for Blacks and Hispanics
By Edward N. Wolff, as reported by Abby Hiller
Greater Wealth, Greater Uncertainty: Changes in Racial Inequality in the Survey of Consumer Finances
By Aditya Aladangady, Andrew C. Chang, and Jacob Krimmel, with Eva Ma
Racial Wealth Equity Research and Conversation Series: Education, Retirement, and Inheritances
By Des Allen, Jeffrey P. Thompson, Luc Schuster
Understanding Latino wealth to address disparities and design better policies
By Tonantzin Carmona
Racial Wealth Equity Chartbook: National Trends and the Challenge of Local Data
By Eunjung Jee, Tatjana Meschede, Sylvia Stewart, Peter Ciurczak and Luc Schuster
The Importance of Wealth to Family Well-Being: Seeding Innovation to Address the Structural Roots of Inequality
By Alexis Mann, Sara Chaganti
Trends in the Distribution of Family Wealth, 1989-2019
The Geographic Distribution of Extreme Wealth in the U.S.
By Carl Davis, Emma Sifre, Spandan Marasini
Data from a Native CDFI yield new insights on wealth gap in Indian Country
By D.L. Feir, Elijah Moreno, Lakota Vogel
Stuck on the Ladder: Intragenerational wealth mobility in the United States
Racial Wealth Disparities: Reconsidering the Roles of Human Capital and Inheritance
By Boston Fed, Jeffrey Thompson, John Sabelhaus
Wealth of Two Nations: The U.S. Racial Wealth Gap, 1860-2020
By Ellora Derenoncourt, Chi Hyun Kim, Moritz Kuhn & Moritz Schularick
Disparities in Wealth by Race and Ethnicity in the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances
By Neil Bhutta, Andrew C. Change, Lisa J. Dettling
The Racial Wealth Gap Is About the Upper Classes
By Matt Bruenig
The economic impact of closing the racial wealth gap
The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap
By Mehrsa Baradan
Systematic Inequality: How America’s Structural Racism Helped Create the Black-White Wealth Gap
By Angela Hanks, Danyelle Solomon, Christian E. Wellter
Income and Wealth Inequality in America, 1949-2016
By Moritz Kuhn, Moritz Schularick, Ulrike I. Steins
The Asset Value of Whiteness
Wealth Inequalities in Greater Boston: Do Race and Ethnicity Matter?
By Tatjana Meschede, Darrick Hamilton, Ana Patricia Munoz, Regine O. Jackson, William A Darity Jr
Reducing Racial Wealth Inequalities in Greater Boston: Building a Shared Agenda
By David Bryant, Ginger Haggerty, Cynthia Parker, Mimi Turchinetz, and Ester Schlorholtz
The Color of Wealth in Boston
By Ana Patricia Muñoz , Marlene Kim, Mariko Chang, Regine O. Jackson, Darrick Hamilton, and William A. Darity Jr.
Bootstraps Are For Black Kids: Race, Wealth and the Impact of Intergenerational Transfers on Adult Outcomes
By Dr. Yunju Nam, Dr. Darrick Hamilton, Dr. William A. Darrity, Jr., Anne E. Price
The Racial Wealth Gap: Why Policy Matters
By Laura Sullivan Tatjana Meschede, Lars Dietrich, Thomas Shapiro (IASP), Amy Traugh, Catherine Ruetchslin, Tamara Draut, (Demos)
Less Than Equal, Racial Disparities in Wealth Accumulation
By Signe-Mary McKernan, Caroline Ratcliffe, Eugene Steverle, Sisi Zhang
The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap: Explaining the Black and White Income Divide
By Thomas Shapiro, Tatjana Meschede, Sam Osoro
Do Financial Support and Inheritance Contribute to the Racial Wealth Gap
By Signe-Mary McKernan, Caroline Ratcliffe, Margaret Simms, Sisi Zhang
Black Wealth/ White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality
By Tom Shapiro, Oliver L Melvin