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In recent decades, the financial elite have seen their economic resources grow significantly, while the income and wealth of other households have stagnated. The financial elite includes couples who are super-rich (top one percent), rich (the 90th–99th percentile), and upper-middle class (the 80th–89th percentile). Gendered work–family arrangements in top economic groups may contribute to inequality—particularly to wealth accumulation among the elite—but relatively little is known about how these couples divide paid and unpaid work or the extent to which their arrangements differ from other couples. In this study, we uncover novel work and family patterns and trends in the most economically powerful families in the United States. We use the Survey of Consumer Finances (1989–2019) to compare the household division of labor across income and wealth groups and over time, with a focus on financial elites. We find stark contrasts between super-rich couples and other couples in the division of labor. Specifically, super-rich couples are much more likely than all other couples, including rich and upper-middle class couples, to have a traditional male breadwinner–female homemaker/caregiver arrangement. Importantly, the striking patterns of traditional arrangements in the top one percent have not changed in 30 years and, as we uncover, appear to be driven by a couple's wealth rather than income. These findings suggest that work–family arrangements may be an integral component of economic and gender inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on elites experienced a resurgence in sociology over a decade ago, but this work was largely gender neutral. Recently, a body of work on elite women and gender dynamics in elite families emerged and is growing rapidly. We propose here that gendered processes are critical for understanding the reproduction of elite privilege and inequality and highlight three subjects that dominate contemporary literature in this area. First, we address who counts as an elite and gender differences in pathways to the elite. Second, we discuss elite family dynamics and the mechanisms that create traditional gender divisions of labor in elite households. Third, we underscore the significant power that elites have and discuss gender differences in the sources of power. We conclude by identifying areas for future directions, including honing empirical and theoretical understandings of the complex relationship between gender and rising class inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study is the first to examine net worth poverty, and its intersection with income poverty, by race and ethnicity among child households in the United States. Background: Scholarship on economic scarcity for children has largely concentrated on income deficits and thus leaves open important questions about wealth deficits. Method: Data come from the 1989–2019 waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances, on households with at least one resident child under the age of 18. Net worth poverty is measured as household net worth, defined as total assets minus total debts, that is less than one‐fourth of the federal poverty line. Results: In 2019, 57% of Black and 50% of Latino child households were net worth poor. The majority of these households were not income poor. Racial and ethnic differences in net worth poverty (unlike those for income poverty) persist even when sociodemographic variation predicting income poverty is controlled for. Conclusion: Net worth poverty is so prevalent in the lives of non‐White children that, after sociodemographic characteristics are controlled for, Black and Latino child households have about the same probability of not being poor as they do of being net worth poor. Implications: A focus on income deprivation alone will overlook the precarious economic conditions related to family net worth and ignore growing disparities by race and ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wealth is an important measure of advantage and disadvantage, especially in a global context of wage stagnation, growing debt, and rising inequality. We see research on the wealth attainment of immigrants and their descendants as fundamental to understanding patterns of migration, stratification, and integration. The collection of papers in this volume link ethnic and migration studies to literatures on wealth inequality and demonstrate how individual-level characteristics, selection effects, global patterns of migration, and varied host-society contexts shape social and economic integration and the reproduction of inequalities in the U.S., Latin America, and China. This special issue underscores the necessity of placing wealth attainment at the centre of ethnic and migration studies, especially as population movements expand at a rapid pace and as income and wealth inequality widens across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ties that immigrants maintain across national borders are important indicators of both patterns of global interconnectedness and the incorporation of immigrants in their host countries. Scholars acknowledge that cross-border ties are extensive but debate the persistence of these ties following migration. We propose that simultaneously studying the home and host country financial investments of three large immigrant groups in the United States may provide unique insight into these important questions. Specifically, we study the home and host country investments of Mexican, Chinese, and Indian immigrants to the United States. We propose that home country financial ties are likely to decline over time but that host country financial ties will become stronger. However, significant and meaningful differences in these patterns are likely across the three groups we study. Using data from the New Immigrant Survey – a nationally representative multicohort longitudinal study of adult immigrants who are U.S. legal permanent residents – we find that cross-border investments are considerably less enduring than previous literature has found. However, portfolio composition and the location of critical assets vary in significant and informative ways by country of origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large body of research links wealth and health, but most previous work focuses on net worth. However, the assets and debts that comprise wealth likely relate to health in different and meaningful ways. Furthermore, racial differences in wealth portfolios may contribute to racial health gaps. Using longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and mixed effects growth curve models, we examined the associations between various wealth components and multiple health outcomes. We also investigated whether black-white differences in wealth portfolios contributed to racial health inequality. We found that savings, stock ownership, and homeownership consistently improve health, but debt is associated with worse health, even after adjusting for total net worth. We found little evidence that home equity is associated with health. Findings also revealed differential health returns to assets by race. These findings provide new insights into the complex relationship among race, wealth, and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study examines how overwork and traditional household specialization—defined as households with one dedicated female homemaker and one dedicated male breadwinner—are associated with wealth across socioeconomic strata. Background: Although overwork and household specialization are clearly associated with income, less is known about how these behaviors affect household wealth. Household wealth is only moderately correlated with household income and is influenced by many factors that do not affect income, suggesting that overwork and specialization have different associations with wealth than with income. Moreover, because wealth is so unevenly distributed, overwork and specialization likely have different associations with wealth across socioeconomic strata. Method: With data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, a nationally representative survey of households that includes an oversample of high‐wealth households, the authors estimate unconditional quantile regression models to investigate how overwork and household specialization are associated with household wealth across socioeconomic strata and over time. Results: Overwork has the greatest absolute benefits at the top of the wealth distribution but the greatest relative benefits in lower portions of the wealth distribution. Specialization yields distinct advantages for high‐wealth households that have grown over time, whereas specialization comes with trade‐offs for low‐wealth households that outweigh its benefits. Conclusion: The financial trade‐offs associated with overwork and specialization vary considerably across the wealth distribution. Contrary to findings in income‐based research, overwork premiums appear most crucial to the financial well‐being of underprivileged households, whereas specialization premiums are evident only for the economic elite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent evidence indicates that inheritances and other intergenerational wealth transfers have only a limited effect on wealth inequality and the intergenerational transmission of financial well-being. In this study, we explore the role that human capital and family formation play in mediating the relationship between receiving a transfer and building wealth. We examine how educational attainment and family formation determine whether or not households are able to convert inheritances into greater assets, facilitating improved wealth accumulation. Using data from the Panel Study for Income Dynamics (PSID), we examine how these factors moderate wealth accumulation trajectories following a bequest or inter vivos gift. Results reveal that educational attainment and marriage each facilitate wealth accumulation following a transfer. Our evidence suggests that cumulative advantage processes produce divergent wealth accumulation trajectories but these are situated in important turning points in the life course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexican Americans are a large group whose mobility patterns can provide important insight into immigrant assimilation processes. It is well known that Mexicans have not attained economic parity with whites, but there is considerable debate about the degree to which Mexican immigrants and their American-born children experience mobility over their lives. We contribute to this literature by studying Mexican American wealth ownership, focusing on three interrelated processes. First, we examine childhood poverty and inheritances to establish financial starting points and to identify the degree to which resources from prior generations affect wealth ownership. Second, we study impediments to mobility in young adulthood to understand how childhood conditions create early adult obstacles to well-being. Third, we study midlife net worth and homeownership to better understand whether childhood and young adult impediments necessarily reduce adult wealth ownership. We find high levels of early life disadvantage among Mexican Americans, but these disadvantages are least pronounced in the second and third generations compared to the first generation. Consistent with prior research, we also find high levels of young adult impediments to mobility for Mexican Americans. However, we find that these early roadblocks do not necessarily translate into lower adult wealth: we show that Mexican Americans have less total wealth than whites but more than African Americans, even when early life impediments are controlled. Our results suggest that Mexican Americans are establishing a solid financial foundation that is likely to lead to long-term class stability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent protest movements brought attention to the one percent, a segment of the population that is critical to understanding inequality and social mobility but that attracts relatively little research attention. In this article, I survey current research on the one percent in the United States. I distinguish income from wealth and show that both are very concentrated but that the concentration of wealth, particularly financial wealth, is extremely high. I describe the demographic traits and finances of households who are in the one percent and discuss how these have changed in the past decade. I review literature that explains rising top incomes, and I propose that future research will usefully concentrate more on top wealth owners and on the demographic and life course processes that underlie income and wealth concentration. I conclude by speculating about why Americans are so tolerant of resource concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Racial differences in wealth ownership are among the most extreme and persistent forms of stratification in the United States, but the factors that contribute to this inequality are unclear. One potentially important contributing factor is family background. it is a critical determinant of attainment, and both childhood family resources and family structure vary racially. This article reports that family size during childhood contributes significantly to racial differences in adult wealth. I find that siblings strain material and nonmaterial resources during childhood and decrease adult home ownership, stock ownership, and total assets. Having extended family in the home also decreases wealth for those from intact families, but an extended family minimizes the negative effect of divorce and separation and increases wealth in disrupted families. I also find that childhood family size and family structure are related to racial differences in adult wealth accumulation trajectories, allowing whites to begin accumulating high-yield assets earlier in life. The results provide insight into the role of family background in creating and maintaining inequality, particularly racial stratification in wealth ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have documented extreme inequalities in wealth ownership, but the processes that create these inequalities are not well understood. One important contributing factor that attracts little attention is religion. This study explores the relationship between religious participation, religious affiliation, and patterns of wealth accumulation. I argue that religion affects wealth ownership indirectly by shaping demographic behaviors. I also argue that religion directly influences wealth accumulation by identifying valuable goals, by providing a set of competencies that direct strategies of action, and by contributing to social contacts that provide information and opportunities that can enhance wealth ownership. The findings suggest that Jews enjoy tremendous gains in wealth ownership, while conservative Protestants accumulate relatively little wealth. In contrast, mainline Protestants and Catholics are indistinguishable from each other and from the general population. The results demonstrate the importance of family processes in shaping wealth accumulation, and they underscore the importance of culture in shaping economic behavior and ultimately in creating social inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inequality in wealth has been well-documented, but its causes remain uncertain. Family processes in childhood are likely to shape adults' wealth accumulation, but these factors have attracted little attention. I argue that family size matters: children from larger families accumulate less wealth than do those from smaller families. Siblings dilute parents' finite financial resources and nonmaterial resources, such as time. This diminishment of resources reduces educational attainment, inter vivos transfers, and inheritance. Reduced educational attainment and transfers alter financial behavior; saving; and, ultimately, adults' wealth. I demonstrate that sibship size is associated with lower overall wealth in adulthood and that parents' resources and education, respondent's education, financial transfers, and financial behavior all mitigate the effect of siblings. Sibship size also reduces the likelihood of receiving a trust account or an inheritance and decreases home- and stock ownership. The findings provide important insights into early family processes that shape wealth accumulation and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the impact of racial differences and asset ownership on wealth distribution in the United States. Racial inequality in socioeconomic well-being has been documented extensively in the social sciences. Research has demonstrated that Blacks, in particular, have not kept pace with whites on indicators such as earnings, labor force participation, labor force outcomes, and quality of living conditions. In 1983, the correlation between total household income and household net worth was 0.49; and when asset income was removed from total income, the correlation dropped to 0.26. This suggests that many of the truly wealthy have rather low earnings, probably because they are able to support current consumption with income derived from assets. A micro-simulation model has been used to explore the relationship between racial differences in asset ownership and wealth inequality. Wealth inequality is still an unresolved issue in America. Levels of wealth inequality are so extreme that most people hardly register any wealth at all, yet wealth is one of the most central indicators of financial well-being and security. Racial differences in wealth ownership are particularly acute and have been relatively persistent in recent decades.

Wealth ownership in the United States has long been concentrated in the hands of a small minority of the population, yet researchers have paid relatively little attention to the causes and consequences of this inequality. In this essay, we review the literature that does exist on wealth accumulation and distribution. We begin with an examination of the reasons that wealth inequality has received little empirical attention. We then discuss methods of creating empirical estimates of wealth accumulation and distribution, and we present some estimates of recent trends in wealth inequality. We explore a diverse collection of research that explains these trends, covering treatments of aggregate influences and individual and household factors. We conclude the chapter with a review of research on intergenerational processes and wealth mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study broadens the traditional focus on income as the primary measure of economic deprivation by providing the first analysis of wealth deprivation, or net worth poverty (NWP), and adult health. Net worth poverty—having wealth (assets minus debts) less than one-fourth of the federal poverty line—likely exacerbates the negative effects of income poverty (IP). In 2019, one-third of US households were net worth poor, with substantially higher rates among Black (60%) relative to White (25%) households. We estimate longitudinal growth curve (i.e., linear mixed effects) models to test how NWP, IP, and the interaction of the two predict a diverse set of health measures. We also consider whether NWP resulting from either low assets or high debts is more predictive of health outcomes and test for heterogeneous associations by race. Data come from Panel Study of Income Dynamics on 8,962 individuals ages 25 to 64, observed between 2011 and 2019 (n = 26,776). Adjusting for income poverty, net worth poverty, relative to no poverty, was associated with a one-quarter to one-third increase in the likelihood of reporting poor self-rated health, psychological distress, and work limitations. Simultaneously experiencing both NWP and IP was associated with the largest deficits. Both asset-driven (low asset) and debt-driven (high debt) NWP reduced health, but asset-driven NWP had stronger associations (e.g., a 5-percentage point increase of being in poor health, twice that of debt-driven). White, relative to Black, adults exhibited statistically larger associations for psychological distress (4.3 vs 1.1 percentage points) and work limitations (3.7 vs. 1.5 percentage points). White and Black adults who were jointly net worth and income poor exhibited the most disadvantage. Findings underscore how wealth is a critical component of financial deprivation and that wealth deprivation, particularly the lack of assets, merits attention in socioeconomic studies of health inequalities. • Net worth poverty-wealth less than 1/4 of poverty line-negatively predicts health. • Net worth poverty related to poor health, psychological distress, and work limits. • Being both net worth and income poor put Black and White adults at the most risk. • Lack of assets may be more consequential for poor health than high debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]