IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v15y2026i3p176-d1889759.html

Generation X and the Restructuring of Retirement: Cohort, Institutional Context, and Social Class in U.S. Wealth Inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Lisa A. Keister

    (Department of Sociology, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA)

Abstract

Retirement wealth is a core indicator of financial security, autonomy, and inequality in later life. This paper examines how cohort, institutional context, and social class interact to shape retirement wealth, focusing on Generation X. Gen X occupies a critical but understudied position in the life course between peak earning years and full retirement; they also came of age during a major restructuring of the U.S. economy that shifted financial risk from institutions to individuals. I compare Gen X retirement wealth to that of adjacent cohorts, evaluating how different asset and debt types contribute to cohort differences in retirement readiness. I also examine intra-cohort inequality by wealth class. Findings suggest that retirement wealth inequality is especially severe among those nearing and exiting the labor force. The analyses highlight how long-term economic security is socially structured and historically contingent—making retirement wealth a powerful lens for understanding inequality across time and class.

Suggested Citation

  • Lisa A. Keister, 2026. "Generation X and the Restructuring of Retirement: Cohort, Institutional Context, and Social Class in U.S. Wealth Inequality," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-24, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:15:y:2026:i:3:p:176-:d:1889759
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/15/3/176/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/15/3/176/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:15:y:2026:i:3:p:176-:d:1889759. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.