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Ethnic and racial disparities in saving behavior

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  • Mariela Dal Borgo

    (Banco de México)

Abstract

Using data of households approaching retirement in the U.S., I perform quantile decompositions of the Whites’ differences in saving rates with Mexican Americans (ethnic gap) and with African Americans (racial gap). The gaps are small at the bottom half of the distribution and widen at the top, especially those resulting from changes in asset prices (passive savings). Differences in observable factors account for the entire gaps at lower quantiles, but some unexplained racial gap remains at higher quantiles. Thus, racial wealth inequality could be partly attributable to differences in the distributions of saving rates conditional on socio-economic characteristics. Income is the main contributor to the active savings gaps, and education is more important for passive savings. Including retirement assets, the racial but not the ethnic gap in total saving rates disappears. The results suggest that reducing disparities in income, education and pension savings would help to reduce wealth inequality between minorities, particularly Mexican Americans, and Whites.

Suggested Citation

  • Mariela Dal Borgo, 2019. "Ethnic and racial disparities in saving behavior," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(2), pages 253-283, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:jecinq:v:17:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s10888-018-9400-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s10888-018-9400-3
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    Cited by:

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    3. Luke Petach & Daniele Tavani, 2021. "Differential Rates of Return and Racial Wealth Inequality," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 115-165, September.
    4. Christian E. Weller & Connor Maxwell & Danyelle Solomon, 2021. "Simulating How Large Policy Proposals Affect the Black-White Wealth Gap," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 196-213, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    African Americans; Mexican Americans; Saving rates; Wealth inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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