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Family Structure, Race, and Wealth Ownership: A Longitudinal Exploration of Wealth Accumulation Processes

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Author Info
Lisa A. Keister (Ohio State University)
Abstract

Researchers have documented racial inequalities in wealth ownership and have offered a variety of explanations to account for these differences. One potentially important contributing factor that has received little attention is racial differences in family structure. This paper explores racial differences in the structure of family of origin and family in adulthood and examines the impact of these differences on wealth accumulation patterns. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I find that large family size and family disruptions in childhood are negatively associated with wealth accumulation, portfolio behavior, and wealth mobility in adulthood. My analyses suggest that family size is a more important factor determining wealth accumulation for whites than for blacks or Hispanics and that family disruption is most strongly related to wealth outcomes for Hispanics. I find that family structure in adulthood is only modestly associated with overall wealth but strongly related to portfolio behavior and wealth mobility and that these relationships are relatively fixed across racial groups. My findings lend support to arguments about the importance of the role that resource dilution plays in determining life outcomes. They also suggest that efforts to reduce racial inequality in wealth ownership may be most effective if they seek to reduce the impact of deprivation early in life.

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Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Macroeconomics with number 0004051.

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Length: 33 pages
Date of creation: 25 Oct 2000
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Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0004051

Note: Type of Document - Adobe Acrobat PDF; prepared on IBM PC; to print on PostScript; pages: 33; figures: included
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E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Hill, C Russell & Stafford, Frank P, 1978. "Intergenerational Wealth Transfers and the Educational Decisions of Male Youth: An Alternative Interpretation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 92(3), pages 515-20, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Wolff, Edward N, 1998. "Recent Trends in the Size Distribution of Household Wealth," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 131-50, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Juster, F. Thomas & Smith, James P. & Stafford, Frank, 1999. "The measurement and structure of household wealth," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 253-275, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Ngina S. Chiteji & Frank P. Stafford, 1999. "Portfolio Choices of Parents and Their Children as Young Adults: Asset Accumulation by African-American Families," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 377-380, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Greg J. Duncan & Saul D. Hoffman, 1985. "Economic Consequences of Marital Instability," NBER Chapters, in: Horizontal Equity, Uncertainty, and Economic Well-Being, pages 427-470 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  6. Stafford, Frank P, 1987. "Women's Work, Sibling Competition, and Children's School Performance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(5), pages 972-80, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Menchik, Paul L & Jianakoplos, Nancy Ammon, 1997. "Black-White Wealth Inequality: Is Inheritance the Reason?," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 428-42, April.
  8. Blau, Francine D & Graham, John W, 1990. "Black-White Differences in Wealth and Asset Composition," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 105(2), pages 321-39, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Zagorsky, Jay L, 1999. "Young Baby Boomers' Wealth," Review of Income and Wealth, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(2), pages 135-56, June.
  10. Arthur B. Kennickell & Martha Starr-McCluer & Annika E. Sunden, 1997. "Family finances in the U.S.: recent evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), issue Jan, pages 1-24. [Downloadable!]
  11. Kerwin Kofi Charles & Erik Hurst, 2002. "The Transition To Home Ownership And The Black-White Wealth Gap," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(2), pages 281-297, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Deborah Cobb-Clark & Vincent A. Hildebrand, 2006. "The Wealth of Mexican Americans," CEPR Discussion Papers 519, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. [Downloadable!]
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  2. Belton, Willie & Uwaifo Oyelere, Ruth, 2008. "The Racial Saving Gap Enigma: Unraveling the Role of Institutions," IZA Discussion Papers 3545, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Vincent Hildebrand, 2003. "The Wealth and Asset Holdings of U.S.-Born and Foreign-Born Households: Evidence from SIPP Data," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 89, McMaster University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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