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

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  • Ellora Derenoncourt
  • Chi Hyun Kim
  • Moritz Kuhn
  • Moritz Schularick

Abstract

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 article, 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 past 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 convergence via income growth and savings has come to a halt.

Suggested Citation

  • Ellora Derenoncourt & Chi Hyun Kim & Moritz Kuhn & Moritz Schularick, 2024. "Wealth of Two Nations: The U.S. Racial Wealth Gap, 1860–2020," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 139(2), pages 693-750.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:139:y:2024:i:2:p:693-750.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/qje/qjad044
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Prottoy A. Akbar & Sijie Li & Allison Shertzer & Randall P. Walsh, 2019. "Racial Segregation in Housing Markets and the Erosion of Black Wealth," NBER Working Papers 25805, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Cited by:

    1. Waitkus, Nora & Savage, Mike & Toft, Maren, 2024. "Wealth and class analysis: exploitation, closure and exclusion," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 124534, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. LaVoice, Jessica & Vamossy, Domonkos F., 2024. "Racial disparities in debt collection," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).

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