The U.S. Racial Wealth Gap, 1860-2020

[OfTheCross]

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

Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.

www.nber.org

The racial wealth gap is the largest of the economic disparities between Black and white Americans, with a white-to-Black per capita wealth ratio of 6 to 1. It is also among the most persistent. In this paper, we construct the first continuous series on white-to-Black per capita wealth ratios from 1860 to 2020, drawing on historical census data, early state tax records, and historical waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances, among other sources. Incorporating these data into a parsimonious model of wealth accumulation for each racial group, we document the role played by initial conditions, income growth, savings behavior, and capital returns in the evolution of the gap. Given vastly different starting conditions under slavery, racial wealth convergence would remain a distant scenario, even if wealth-accumulating conditions had been equal across the two groups since Emancipation. Relative to this equal-conditions benchmark, we find that observed convergence has followed an even slower path over the last 150 years, with convergence stalling after 1950. Since the 1980s, the wealth gap has widened again as capital gains have predominantly benefited white households, and income convergence has stopped.

 

[OfTheCross]

if anyone knows how to embed that pdf in the link please do

 

[RageKage]

Antonio Moore discusses this all the time but he doesn't get much play here.

 

[OfTheCross]

Antonio Moore discusses this all the time but he doesn't get much play here.

What's his stance on it? I've never heard of him

 

[saturn7]

What's his stance on it? I've never heard of him

 

[OfTheCross]

Damn. This shyt depressing

 

[Bunchy Carter]

The only way to fix the racial wealth gap for FBA is for the US Govt., to give reparations to FBA, in the form of cash payments, which is a debt that the US Govt., owes FBA for slavery.

FBA need cash payment, not school grants, tax credits, just cash payments.

 

[LokBigBoss]

I'ma paste my reply from another thread since it's similar to this one.

Black folk need to get on code which means community economics, helping each other when in need for ex rent and food support from the community, we need a another powerful pro black movement (black Panthers). Unfortunately this ain't gonna happen nikkas and bytches is selfish, materialistic, hyper-individualistic, and care 2 much about white dikk and coochie 2 get shyt done. One thing is for sure in this world no other races care about black folks

 

[OfTheCross]

Bloomberg picked it up

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

 

[OfTheCross]

The authors find that the racial wealth gap in the U.S. narrowed sharply in the 50-year period that followed the abolition of slavery, reducing the white-to-Black ratio of per capita wealth from 60-to-1 in 1860 to 10-to-1 in 1920.

However, the pace of the decline slowed significantly in the mid-20th century. Rising capital gains contributed disproportionately more to the wealth of white Americans over the 1980-2020 period, the authors find, causing the racial wealth gap to widen.

The authors estimate that even if savings and capital returns had been equal for white and Black Americans since 1870, the wealth gap accumulated under slavery would take an additional 200 years to dissipate. The findings suggest that, compared to policies that target racial disparities in savings and capital returns, “policies like reparations that involve large transfers that increase the stock of Black wealth have greater immediate impact on the wealth gap.”

The authors also note, however, that “in the absence of changes in savings and capital gains gaps, such transfers would have but a transient effect on the wealth gap.”

Hutchins Roundup: The Fed’s balance sheet, racial wealth gap, and more

www.brookings.edu

 

[Consigliere]

The authors find that the racial wealth gap in the U.S. narrowed sharply in the 50-year period that followed the abolition of slavery, reducing the white-to-Black ratio of per capita wealth from 60-to-1 in 1860 to 10-to-1 in 1920.

So…

To put this in perspective.

My great great grandfather coming almost directly out of slavery purchased land in Mississippi, enough to lease plots out to sharecroppers, built several churches and schools, and put all of his children through school.

Then my great grandfather became a postal carrier (prestigious job for Black men back then), bought land, founded a Shriners lodge and a free mason lodge in Mississippi, put all of his children though school, and setup a scholarship fund for black kids. During this time a lot of the land holdings that my grandfather acquired were sold or stolen.

Then my grandfather was able to graduate from college, join the military, fight in a war, come back home and buy land and a house without any GI benefits or access to programs that literally built the white middle class… but he had to move up North to do it.

My dad, grows up in the North, dropped out of college, did multiple stints in jail, went to rehab, abandoned me and my mom, shacked up with a white woman. He’s sober now (so there’s that). All pre-rap music for the C. Dolores Tuckers out there.

And then there’s me. Out here trying to put the puzzle back together after the last guy threw the pieces on the floor.

My point with all of this is that my story isn’t that different from any other Black person who’s family has been here. There was a concerted effort post reconstruction to undo the progress that was made. And it went from denying access to opportunity through the GI bill to urban drug and violence epidemic that started with 70’s heroin and continued with the crack era. It was all intentional and needs to be factored into the general reparations claim that we have.

 

[Mook]

The authors find that the racial wealth gap in the U.S. narrowed sharply in the 50-year period that followed the abolition of slavery, reducing the white-to-Black ratio of per capita wealth from 60-to-1 in 1860 to 10-to-1 in 1920.

However, the pace of the decline slowed significantly in the mid-20th century. Rising capital gains contributed disproportionately more to the wealth of white Americans over the 1980-2020 period, the authors find, causing the racial wealth gap to widen.

The authors estimate that even if savings and capital returns had been equal for white and Black Americans since 1870, the wealth gap accumulated under slavery would take an additional 200 years to dissipate. The findings suggest that, compared to policies that target racial disparities in savings and capital returns, “policies like reparations that involve large transfers that increase the stock of Black wealth have greater immediate impact on the wealth gap.”

The authors also note, however, that “in the absence of changes in savings and capital gains gaps, such transfers would have but a transient effect on the wealth gap.”

Hutchins Roundup: The Fed’s balance sheet, racial wealth gap, and more

www.brookings.edu

These stats mean no president gave a shyt about black people except president grant.

 

[OfTheCross]

The US racial wealth gap, 1860-2020 | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal

Large and persistent wealth gaps between Black and white Americans have attracted considerable attention from researchers and policymakers. This column presents a new long-run time series of the per capita wealth gap, from before the Civil War to 2020. A key finding is that severe racial...

voxeu.org

Conclusion​

Our study emphasises the outsized role of initial conditions under slavery in determining the speed of convergence between Black and white wealth. In light of these findings, we conclude that policies that redistribute large stocks of wealth, like reparations, lead to immediate reductions in racial wealth inequality. While policies targeting portfolio composition or fostering income convergence can return us to a convergence path, that could take hundreds of years to play out.

Nevertheless, we argue that these two types of policies are highly complementary if policymakers aim at persistently closing the racial wealth gap, as policies that redistribute stocks of wealth without addressing racial gaps in savings and capital gains have but a transient effect on the wealth gap.

 

[OfTheCross]

Wealth of two nations: The U.S. racial wealth gap, 1860-2020 - Equitable Growth

The racial wealth gap fell between 1870 and 1980, but it has since been on the rise and predominantly benefitting White households.

equitablegrowth.org