Can ‘Baby Bonds’ Eliminate the Racial Wealth Gap in Putative Post-Racial America?

Hamilton, Darrick; Darity, William A.

doi:10.1007/s12114-010-9063-1

Cited by 163 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…5 Obama uses the occasion of his first national platform to single out and chastise Black youths and their families as the cause of their own underachievement with an emphasis on education. Obama reiterated the themes of his 2004 keynote in his "More Perfect Union" speech as a presidential candidate in 2008, adding that Blacks should cease making particularistic claims on America (Hamilton and Darity, 2010).…”

Section: College Debt Income Volatility and Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Baby bonds are designed to provide an opportunity to purchase an appreciating asset for all newborns. The program is analogous to a social security program that would provide capital finance for young adults to begin a lifetime of building assets and economic security independent of the financial positioning and decisionmaking of the families into which they are born (Hamilton and Darity, 2010).…”

Section: An Alternative Approach From the Lens Of Stratification Econmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Political Economy of Education, Financial Literacy, and the Racial Wealth Gap

Hamilton

Darity

2017

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uch of the framing around wealth disparity, including the use of alternative financial service products, focuses on the poor financial choices and decisionmaking on the part of largely Black, Latino, and poor borrowers, which is often tied to a culture of poverty thesis regarding an undervaluing and low acquisition of education. This framing is wrong-the directional emphasis is wrong. It is more likely that meager economic circumstance-not poor decisionmaking or deficient knowledge-constrains choice itself and leaves borrowers with little to no other option but to use predatory and abusive alternative financial services. To make this point, what better indicator of economic circumstance is there than wealth? Wealth serves as a primary indicator of economic security. Wealthier families are better positioned to finance elite, independent school and college educations, access capital to start a business, finance expensive medical procedures, reside in neighborhoods with higher amenities, exert political influence through campaign financing, purchase better counsel if confronted with an expensive legal system, leave a bequest, and/or withstand financial hardship resulting from any number of emergencies (Hamilton and Darity, 2009). Wealth provides This article examines the mismatch between the political discourse around individual agency, education, and financial literacy, and the actual racial wealth gap. The authors argue that the racial wealth gap is rooted in socioeconomic and political structure barriers rather than a disdain for or underachievement in education or financial literacy on the part of Black Americans, as might be suggested by the conventional wisdom. Also, the article presents a stratification economic lens as an alternative to the conventional wisdom to better understand why the racial wealth gap persists. (JEL J15, Z13)

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Section: College Debt Income Volatility and Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: An Alternative Approach From the Lens Of Stratification Econmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Political Economy of Education, Financial Literacy, and the Racial Wealth Gap

Hamilton

Darity

2017

Self Cite

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“…(Sawhill and Reeves 2016). A few examples of race-conscious policies are baby-bonds proposed by Hamilton and Darity (2010) to reduce the wealth gap across families, enhanced-EITC proposed by Halpern-Meekin et al (2015) to help poor families repay debt and accumulate savings: both these policies are not targeted by race but would benefit African-American families. Below, I discuss race-conscious policy implications in the context of the current research.…”

Section: Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Earnings Disparities with Endogenous Labor Market Participation

Lahiri

2018

J Econ Race Policy

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This paper examines racial disparity in wage income earnings in the USA across different quantiles, after accounting for the endogeneity of labor market engagement which is captured using the continuous variable: annual number of weeks worked. Controlling for this endogeneity is important because changes in income earned would affect the labor supply, while on the labor demand side any pressures that cause racial disparity is likely to affect both hiring and pay decisions. State-sector level averages for weather-related work absences are used as instruments for number of weeks worked at the individual level and robustness of the results are verified. The instrumental variable conditional and generalized quantile regression techniques are used for analyzing the disparity. The results find that the racial disparity gets larger at the upper quantiles even when controlling for other covariates ensure that the individuals are similar in important attributes.

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“…CDAs are described by Sherraden and coworkers (Huang et al ; Sherraden ). Baby Bonds are discussed in greater detail in a proposal by Hamilton and Darity ().…”

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confidence: 99%

The Financial Services Environment and Schools' Savings Rates in the San Francisco Kindergarten to College Program

Friedline¹,

Dunham²,

O’Brien³

2019

Journal of Consumer Affairs

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Children's savings accounts (CSAs) have emerged as a promising intervention to improve educational outcomes, curtail rising student loan debt, and promote equality of opportunity. Numerous localized CSA programs have emerged in the last decade, and many are embedded within school systems. This study leverages novel data to investigate participation in one of the oldest and most well‐known CSA programs in the country: the San Francisco Kindergarten to College (K2C) Program in the San Francisco Unified School District. Spatial analysis of 21,617 accounts at 74 elementary schools reveals statistically significant differences in the rates of elementary schools' K2C account participation based on the concentrations of banks, credit unions, and alternative financial service providers—net controls for neighborhood demographics. Unless explicitly addressed, substantial variations in the financial service environment across neighborhoods could undermine participation in school‐based CSA programs for the very children these programs intend to support.

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Can ‘Baby Bonds’ Eliminate the Racial Wealth Gap in Putative Post-Racial America?

Abstract: Racial wealth gap, Post Racial America, Child development accounts,

Cited by 163 publications

References 13 publications

The Political Economy of Education, Financial Literacy, and the Racial Wealth Gap

The Political Economy of Education, Financial Literacy, and the Racial Wealth Gap

Racial Earnings Disparities with Endogenous Labor Market Participation

The Financial Services Environment and Schools' Savings Rates in the San Francisco Kindergarten to College Program

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