Race and Economic Opportunity in the United States: an Intergenerational Perspective*
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Level 3 by design analogy (longitudinal population-level administrative cohort study, non-clinical scholarship).
OpenAlex W3123816425 · doi:10.1093/qje/qjz042
What was done
The authors analyzed anonymized longitudinal administrative data covering nearly the entire United States population from 1989 to 2015. They evaluated intergenerational income mobility and racial income disparities across demographic groups, examining the contributions of parental income, parental education, marital status, wealth, and neighborhood-level factors (Census tracts) across generations.
What was found
Black Americans and American Indians demonstrated substantially lower rates of upward mobility and higher rates of downward mobility than whites, whereas Hispanic-white income gaps diminished across generations. Conditional on parental income, the black-white income gap was driven by disparities in wages and employment between men; no such gap was found between black and white women. Controlling for parental income, black boys had lower adult incomes than white boys in 99% of Census tracts. Differences in parental marital status, education, and wealth explained little of this gap. Neighborhoods with smaller black-white gaps featured lower poverty, lower white racial bias, and higher black father presence, with earlier childhood moves to these areas conferring better outcomes; however, fewer than 5% of black children grew up in such areas. The abstract did not provide specific dollar amounts or percentage wage differences.
Why it matters
This study demonstrates that racial gaps in economic mobility between black and white individuals are concentrated among men and persist largely independently of parental class, family structure, or neighborhood tract. It indicates that broad place-based or class-focused policies alone are insufficient to close the black-white income gap without targeting factors specific to black men.
Limits
The study is observational and cannot fully isolate causal mechanisms from unobserved confounders. Precise sample counts, income levels, and specific effect sizes are not reported in the abstract. Additionally, findings are specific to the U.S. institutional and historical context between 1989 and 2015.
Cited by
- context When a boy loses a male role model through death, divorce, or abandonment, he becomes more likely to be incarcerated than to graduate from college.