IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/revepe/v3y2022i3d10.1007_s43253-022-00076-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic insecurity in the family tree and the racial wealth gap

Author

Listed:
  • Jermaine Toney

    (Rutgers University)

  • Darrick Hamilton

    (The New School)

Abstract

Much research documents that middle-income households are facing high prevalence of economic insecurity associated with altruistic transfers to relatives in need. The focus of our examination is across and within generations of the same family tree that have grown up in different public policy regimes. Using panel data on U.S. families, we extend the breadth and depth of the work of Chiteji and Hamilton (2002). We find that, compared to their white counterparts, third-generation, middle-income Black families are disproportionately exposed to relatives who face poverty, unemployment, and wealth disparity. Additionally, we find that economic insecurity in the family tree is one of the largest contributors to the Black-White wealth gap.

Suggested Citation

  • Jermaine Toney & Darrick Hamilton, 2022. "Economic insecurity in the family tree and the racial wealth gap," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 539-574, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:revepe:v:3:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s43253-022-00076-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s43253-022-00076-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43253-022-00076-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s43253-022-00076-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tyson Brown, 2012. "The Intersection and Accumulation of Racial and Gender Inequality: Black Women’s Wealth Trajectories," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 39(2), pages 239-258, June.
    2. Brown, Charles & Corcoran, Mary, 1997. "Sex-Based Differences in School Content and the Male-Female Wage Gap," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(3), pages 431-465, July.
    3. Signe-Mary McKernan & Caroline Ratcliffe & Margaret Simms & Sisi Zhang, 2014. "Do Racial Disparities in Private Transfers Help Explain the Racial Wealth Gap? New Evidence From Longitudinal Data," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(3), pages 949-974, June.
    4. Annamaria Lusardi & Daniel Schneider & Peter Tufano, 2011. "Financially Fragile Households: Evidence and Implications," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 42(1 (Spring), pages 83-150.
    5. Maury Gittleman & Edward N. Wolff, 2004. "Racial Differences in Patterns of Wealth Accumulation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(1).
    6. Francine D. Blau & John W. Graham, 1990. "Black-White Differences in Wealth and Asset Composition," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(2), pages 321-339.
    7. Jonathan Daw & Ashton M. Verdery & Rachel Margolis, 2016. "Kin Count(s): Educational and Racial Differences in Extended Kinship in the United States," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 42(3), pages 491-517, September.
    8. Kerwin Kofi Charles & Erik Hurst, 2003. "The Correlation of Wealth across Generations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(6), pages 1155-1182, December.
    9. Begley, Jaclene, 2017. "Legacies of homeownership: Housing wealth and bequests," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 37-50.
    10. William G. Gale & John Karl Scholz, 1994. "Intergenerational Transfers and the Accumulation of Wealth," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 145-160, Fall.
    11. Joseph G. Altonji & Ulrich Doraszelski, 2005. "The Role of Permanent Income and Demographics in Black/White Differences in Wealth," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(1).
    12. Patrick Kline, 2011. "Oaxaca-Blinder as a Reweighting Estimator," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 532-537, May.
    13. N. Chiteji & Darrick Hamilton, 2002. "Family connections and the black-white wealth gap among middle-class families," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 30(1), pages 9-28, June.
    14. James B. Davies & Nicole M. Fortin & Thomas Lemieux, 2017. "Wealth inequality: Theory, measurement and decomposition," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1224-1261, December.
    15. Ryan Compton & Daniel Giedeman & Leslie Muller, 2018. "Racial Differentials in the Wealth Effects of the Financial Crisis and Great Recession," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 126-141, September.
    16. J. B. Burbidge & A. L. Robb, 1985. "Evidence on Wealth-Age Profiles in Canadian Cross-Section Data," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 18(4), pages 854-875, November.
    17. Weihua An & Adam N. Glynn, 2021. "Treatment Effect Deviation as an Alternative to Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition for Studying Social Inequality," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 50(3), pages 1006-1033, August.
    18. Menchik, Paul L & Jianakoplos, Nancy Ammon, 1997. "Black-White Wealth Inequality: Is Inheritance the Reason?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 35(2), pages 428-442, April.
    19. William Darity & Darrick Hamilton & James Stewart, 2015. "A Tour de Force in Understanding Intergroup Inequality: An Introduction to Stratification Economics," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 42(1), pages 1-6, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Merve Burnazoglu & Stefan Kesting & Franklin Obeng-Odoom & Alyssa Schneebaum, 2022. "Introduction: Advancing Stratification Economics — methodological perspectives and policy applications," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 457-461, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jermaine Toney, 2022. "Is there wealth stability across generations in the U.S.? Evidence from panel study, 1984–2017," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(4), pages 551-567, October.
    2. Hero Ashman & Seth Neumuller, 2020. "Can Income Differences Explain the Racial Wealth Gap: A Quantitative Analysis," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 35, pages 220-239, January.
    3. Deokrye Baek & Christian Raschke, 2016. "The Impact of SNAP Vehicle Asset Limits on Household Asset Allocation," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(1), pages 146-175, July.
    4. Rendon, Silvio, 2007. "Does Wealth Explain BlackWhite Differences in Early Employment Careers?," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 25, pages 484-500, October.
    5. 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.
    6. Joseph G. Altonji & Ulrich Doraszelski, 2005. "The Role of Permanent Income and Demographics in Black/White Differences in Wealth," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(1).
    7. William A. Darity & Darrick Hamilton, 2017. "The Political Economy of Education, Financial Literacy, and the Racial Wealth Gap," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 99(1), pages 59-76.
    8. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Vincent A. Hildebrand, 2006. "The Wealth of Mexican Americans," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(4).
    9. Robert W. Fairlie & Alicia M. Robb, 2008. "Race and Entrepreneurial Success: Black-, Asian-, and White-Owned Businesses in the United States," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026206281x, December.
    10. Signe-Mary McKernan & Caroline Ratcliffe & Margaret Simms & Sisi Zhang, 2014. "Do Racial Disparities in Private Transfers Help Explain the Racial Wealth Gap? New Evidence From Longitudinal Data," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(3), pages 949-974, June.
    11. Alexandra Killewald, 2013. "Return to Being Black, Living in the Red: A Race Gap in Wealth That Goes Beyond Social Origins," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(4), pages 1177-1195, August.
    12. Danielle Winchester & Sandra Huston, 2013. "Keeping Your Financial Planner to Yourself: Racial and Cultural Differences in Financial Planner Referrals," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 165-184, June.
    13. Joseph Altonji & Ulrich Doraszelski & Lewis M. Segal, 2000. "Black/white differences in wealth," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 24(Q I), pages 38-50.
    14. Irene Ferrari, 2020. "The nativity wealth gap in Europe: a matching approach," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 33-77, January.
    15. William D. Bradford, 2014. "The “Myth†That Black Entrepreneurship Can Reduce the Gap in Wealth Between Black and White Families," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 28(3), pages 254-269, August.
    16. Timothy F. Harris & Aaron Yelowitz, 2018. "Racial disparities in life insurance coverage," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(1), pages 94-107, January.
    17. Dionissi Aliprantis & Daniel R. Carroll & Eric Young, 2019. "The Dynamics of the Racial Wealth Gap," Working Papers 19-18R, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, revised 29 Nov 2022.
    18. Kishor, N. Kundan & Konkel, Rebecca & Yoon, Jangsu & Zhao, Tian, 2023. "Bridging the racial disparity in wealth creation in Milwaukee," MPRA Paper 117686, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Robert B. Williams, 2017. "Wealth Privilege and the Racial Wealth Gap: A Case Study in Economic Stratification," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 44(3), pages 303-325, December.
    20. N. Chiteji & Darrick Hamilton, 2002. "Family connections and the black-white wealth gap among middle-class families," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 30(1), pages 9-28, June.

    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:spr:revepe:v:3:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s43253-022-00076-5. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.