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  5. Correlates of Wealth Inequality within and across Countries
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Correlates of Wealth Inequality within and across Countries

Paper Session

Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021 12:15 PM - 2:15 PM (EST)

Hosted By: National Economic Association
  • Chair: William Darity Jr., Duke University

Intergenerational Economic Mobility and the Racial Wealth Gap

Jermaine Toney
,
Rutgers University
Cassandra Robertson
,
Cornell University

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore a link between extended family wealth and the income of
their adult children. The proposed research will capitalize on a parent-child sample of
the longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to construct
measures on the life course of children. Measures will include the income, wealth, and
neighborhood conditions when the children are living with their parents; and income at
life events as the children form their own households. Such measures, along with panel
regressions and decompositions, may suggest that extended family wealth plays a
sizable role in income mobility.

Inequality and Socioeconomic Outcomes

Omer Ali
,
Duke University
William Darity Jr.
,
Duke University
Avra Janz
,
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Marta Sánchez
,
University of North Carolina-Wilmington

Abstract

We investigate whether inequality (in income and wealth distribution) is broadly
associated with negative socioeconomic outcomes across countries. There are few
studies that investigate the association between wealth inequality and socioeconomic
outcomes, likely due to data limitations. On the other hand, a substantial body of work
suggests that income inequality tends to foster perverse outcomes. This paper
evaluates the relationship between measures of wealth and income inequality and a
battery of socioeconomic outcomes across countries in a unified estimation framework
that corrects for publication bias. Preliminary results cast doubt on the view that
countries with high levels of inequality tend to also exhibit negative socioeconomic
outcomes.

Assessing Value, Cultivating Inequality: How Home Racialized Appraisal Practices Have Exacerbated Wealth Inequality from 1980 to 2015

Junia Howell
,
University of Pittsburgh

Abstract

Since the 1934 National Housing Act, federal policy and real estate industry practices have deliberately intertwined home ownership and wealth accumulation. Simultaneously, these policies and practices explicitly tied home value and appreciation to neighborhood racial composition. These decisions greatly exacerbated racial wealth gaps. Although some of these racialized practices were addressed in the fair housing legislation of the 1960s and 1970s, the most influential racialized appraising practices have continued. In this paper, we highlight which contemporary practices perpetuate this racial inequality and estimate to what extent these practices are contributing to contemporary racial wealth gaps. Finally, we conclude with policy interventions that would curtail and reverse these racially biased and federally institutionalized practices.
Discussant(s)
Alexandra Killewald
,
Harvard University
Bradley Hardy
,
American University
JEL Classifications
  • D6 - Welfare Economics
  • E2 - Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy