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The Wealth of Mexican Americans

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  • Deborah Cobb-Clark
  • Vincent A. Hildebrand

Abstract

This paper analyzes the sources of disparities in the relative wealth position of Mexican Americans. Results reveal that - unlike the racial wealth gap - Mexican Americans' wealth disadvantage is in large part not the result of differences in wealth distributions conditional on the underlying determinants of wealth. Rather, Mexican Americans' wealth disadvantage is attributable to the fact that these families have more young children and heads who are younger. Mexican Americans' low educational attainment also has a direct effect in producing a wealth gap relative to other ethnic groups even after differences in income are taken into account. Income differentials are important, but do not play the primary role in explaining the gap in median net worth. Finally, geographic concentration is generally unimportant, but does contribute to narrowing the wealth gap between wealthy Mexican Americans and their white and black counterparts.

Suggested Citation

  • Deborah Cobb-Clark & Vincent A. Hildebrand, 2006. "The Wealth of Mexican Americans," CEPR Discussion Papers 519, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    • Handle: RePEc:auu:dpaper:519
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    File URL: https://www.cbe.anu.edu.au/researchpapers/CEPR/DP519.pdf
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General

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