While it is understood that differing ethnic groups have differing income and therefore differing capacity to save for retirement, it is not generally recognized that differing genders and ethnic groups do not save the same even if income is equalized. This article contributes to the discussion...

This paper studies the racial wealth gap using data from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances from 1989 to 2013. We document that the mean and median wealth (net worth) of white families has consistently been much greater than that of black and Hispanic families, and the gap between...

Race and ethnic wealth differentials are wide and increasing. Some of the gaps are associated with education differences, but education alone cannot account for the substantially higher net worth of White families than of Black and Hispanic families. As of 2013, the median wealth of Black...

Differences in college and post-graduate degree attainment alone explain less than half of Black-White and Hispanic-White wealth gaps in a standard wealth regression. Differences in family structure and measures of luck such as income windfalls and inheritances explain even less. Measures of...

Using newly available data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, this paper updates and extends the literature exploring the racial wealth gap. We examine several hypotheses proposed by previous researchers, including the importance of inherited wealth and other family support and that of trends...

Defined benefit (DB) pensions and Social Security are two important resources for financing retirement in the United States. However, these illiquid, non-market forms of wealth are typically excluded from measures of net worth. To the extent that these broadly held resources substitute for...