Wealth of Two Nations: The U.S. Racial Wealth Gap, 1860-2020

Derenoncourt, Ellora; Chi, Hyun,; Kuhn, Moritz; Schularick, Moritz

doi:10.2139/ssrn.4127661

Cited by 13 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Moreover, without eliminating ongoing practices that harm Black households, such as discriminatory lending and disproportionate burdens of penalties and fines, the benefits of one-time reparations payments would likely erode over time. 14,42…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…47 The potential effects of such programs and of reparations payments of alternative amounts or dispersed over different periods represent an important avenue for further investigation. 14…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[8][9][10][11] Current racial wealth inequities arose from centuries of government policies, including 250 years of slavery, rescission of the 1865 Field Order 15 (the promise of "40 acres and a mule" to formerly enslaved people), Black codes and Jim Crow laws, official tolerance of and participation in vigilante violence, exclusion of most Black workers from New Deal programs such as Social Security, discriminatory application of the homebuying provisions of the GI Bill, government-sponsored redlining that excluded most Black families from federally guaranteed mortgages, discriminatory criminal punishment, and lax enforcement of Civil Rights era laws designed to end discrimination in employment, policing, housing, health care, and lending. [12][13][14] The ideology of "colorblindness" has helped to perpetuate the effects of these policies into the present. 15 Reparations payments to Black individuals have been proposed to redress these injustices and, consequently, narrow racial wealth and health gaps.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Association Between Racial Wealth Inequities and Racial Disparities in Longevity Among US Adults and Role of Reparations Payments, 1992 to 2018

et al. 2022

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ImportanceIn the US, Black individuals die younger than White individuals and have less household wealth, a legacy of slavery, ongoing discrimination, and discriminatory public policies. The role of wealth inequality in mediating racial health inequities is unclear.ObjectiveTo assess the contribution of wealth inequities to the longevity gap that exists between Black and White individuals in the US and to model the potential effects of reparations payments on this gap.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis cohort study analyzed the association between wealth and survival among participants in the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative panel study of community-dwelling noninstitutionalized US adults 50 years or older that assessed data collected from April 1992 to July 2019. Participants included 7339 non-Hispanic Black (hereinafter Black) and 26 162 non-Hispanic White (hereinafter White) respondents. Data were analyzed from January 1 to September 17, 2022.ExposuresHousehold wealth, the sum of all assets (including real estate, vehicles, and investments), minus the value of debts.Main Outcomes and MeasuresThe primary outcome was all-cause mortality by the end of survey follow-up in 2018. Using parametric survival models, the associations among household wealth, race, and survival were evaluated, adjusting for age, sex, number of household members, and marital status. Additional models controlled for educational level and income. The survival effects of eliminating the current mean wealth gap with reparations payments ($828 055 per household) were simulated.ResultsOf the 33 501 individuals in the sample, a weighted 50.1% were women, and weighted mean (SD) age at study entry was 59.3 (11.1) years. Black participants’ median life expectancy was 77.5 (95% CI, 77.0-78.2) years, 4 years shorter than the median life expectancy for White participants (81.5 [95% CI, 81.2-81.8] years). Adjusting for demographic variables, Black participants had a hazard ratio for death of 1.26 (95% CI, 1.18-1.34) compared with White participants. After adjusting for differences in wealth, survival did not differ significantly by race (hazard ratio, 1.00 [95% CI, 0.92-1.08]). In simulations, reparations to close the mean racial wealth gap were associated with reductions in the longevity gap by 65.0% to 102.5%.Conclusions and RelevanceThe findings of this cohort study suggest that differences in wealth are associated with the longevity gap that exists between Black and White individuals in the US. Reparations payments to eliminate the racial wealth gap might substantially narrow racial inequities in mortality.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Association Between Racial Wealth Inequities and Racial Disparities in Longevity Among US Adults and Role of Reparations Payments, 1992 to 2018

et al. 2022

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“…Some examples of this research and syntheses of it for variation in health across groups include Fuchs (1974), Case et al (2002), Deaton (2002), Williams and Jackson (2005), Meara et al (2008), Currie (2009), 2011, Boustan and Margo (2015, Case and Deaton (2015), Chetty et al (2016), Weinstein et al (2017), Lleras-Muney (2022), Polyakova and Hua (2019), Chetty, Hendren, et al (2020), Bailey et al (2021), Finkelstein et al (2021), Schwandt et al (2021), andNovosad et al (2022). For variation in economic well-being across groups, see for example Hoynes et al (2012), Bayer and Charles (2018), and Derenoncourt et al (2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heterogeneity in Damages from A Pandemic

Finkelstein¹,

Kocks²,

Polyakova³

et al. 2022

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“…Participation in many organizations requires annual fees, representing potential financial barriers. In the United States, class is almost always coexistent with race: Black, Indigenous, and Latine people in the United States are more likely to come from a low-income background than white people (Derenoncourt et al 2022;Shrider et al 2021). From a more global perspective, colorism is also associated with class, with additional impacts on education levels and career advancement (Hall and Crutchfield 2018;Hunter 2007;Ortega-Williams et al 2021).…”

Section: Who We Are: Individuals and Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Intersectional Approach to Equity, Inequity, and Archaeology

Prince

Blackwood

Brough

et al. 2022

Adv. archaeol. pract.

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The year 2020 was an awakening for some. For others, it reiterated the persistent social injustice in the United States. Compelled by these events, 30 diverse individuals came together from January to May 2021 for a semester-long seminar exploring inequity in archaeological practice. The seminar's discussions spotlighted the inequity and social injustices that are deeply embedded within the discipline. However, inequity in archaeology is often ignored or treated narrowly as discrete, if loosely bound, problems. A broad approach to inequity in archaeology revealed injustice to be intersectional, with compounding effects. Through the overarching themes of individual, community, theory, and practice, we (a subset of the seminar's participants) explore inequity and its role in various facets of archaeology, including North–South relations, publication, resource distribution, class differences, accessibility, inclusive theories, service to nonarchaeological communities, fieldwork, mentorship, and more. We focus on creating a roadmap for understanding the intersectionality of issues of inequity and suggesting avenues for continued education and direct engagement. We argue that community-building—by providing mutual support and building alliances—provides a pathway for realizing greater equity in our discipline.

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Wealth of Two Nations: The U.S. Racial Wealth Gap, 1860-2020

Cited by 13 publications

References 44 publications

Association Between Racial Wealth Inequities and Racial Disparities in Longevity Among US Adults and Role of Reparations Payments, 1992 to 2018

Association Between Racial Wealth Inequities and Racial Disparities in Longevity Among US Adults and Role of Reparations Payments, 1992 to 2018

Heterogeneity in Damages from A Pandemic

An Intersectional Approach to Equity, Inequity, and Archaeology

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