The problem of housing market discrimination and racial disparities in mortgage lending has taken on a new level of urgency ("Blacks, Hispanics Remain Most Likely to Be Denied Home Loans," 1992; Brenner, 1992; Zuckoff, 1992). Researchers and scholars, as well as federal officials, have begun to...

One explanation for the widening of racial earnings gaps among family heads during the 1980s is that black families were increasingly headed by females during that period. This explanation is tested using data on black and white family heads in 1976 and 1985 from the Institute for Research on...

This paper examines empirically the "economic motivation" explanation for the dramatic rise in the proportion of black families headed by females, an explanation positing the attractiveness of welfare as an inducement to black women to "choose" to remain unmarried. Using a Granger-Sims...

This article describes the results of a study into possible racial discrimination on the part of government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) — specifically Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — that buy home mortgage loans on the secondary market. The article begins by laying out the problem: Racial...

Federal guidelines require that public entities receiving federal transit authority (FTA) funds take affirmative steps to allocate funds to disadvantaged business enterprises (DBEs). Business firms owned and operated by women and/or racial minority group members are presumptively classified as...

Data from the United States Census confirm a substantial increase in the racial earnings gap between 1980 and 1990. This paper examines data on whites and non-white wage and salary incomes in Houston TX for 1980 and 1990. Data on time traveled to work is used to simulate what would be the impact...

Do transfer payments keep the poor in poverty? There are at least two ways to restate the question, two ways that imply quite different, although related, lines of inquiry. A first restatement is: Do transfer payments raise the poor out of poverty? In short, are transfer payments efficacious in...

This article examines the myth of bad credit in the Black community. Historically, Blacks have had higher savings rates and lower use of credit than Whites. Discrimination in lending led to an aversion to credit. Later, Blacks believed their credit to be bad, even among many better qualified...

Do the poor pay more for food? To answer this question, this study was conducted to provide an empirical analysis of grocery store access and prices across inner city and suburban communities within the Minneapolis and St. Paul metropolitan area. The comparison among different types of grocers...