Search

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]

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]

This study compares wealth ownership and mobility patterns among baby, boomers and their parents to explore whether the baby boomers have fared as well during their working years and whether they will be as secure in retirement as their parents. Cohort comparisons using survey data indicate that baby boomers had accumulated more wealth as young adults than their parents had at a similar age. Estimates from a simulation model reveal that baby boomers had more wealth than their actual same-sex parents at every stage of the life course. The simulation model also reveals that baby boomers were considerably more likely' than their actual same-sex parents to experience upward wealth mobility, at each point in the life course. These results suggest that speculations that baby' boomers may be the first generation to do worse than their parents are misleading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]