The Widening Racial Wealth Gap in the United States after the Great Recession

Christian E. Weller and Angela Hanks

Forum for Social Economics, 2018, vol. 47, issue 2, 237-252

Abstract: African-Americans consistently have a lot less wealth than whites. This impedes their economic mobility as they have fewer resources to start a business, pay for their children’s education and move to a new neighborhood for a new job or better education. The concurrent labor market and housing market decline during and after the Great Recession of 2007–2009 measurably widened this racial wealth gap. In the years after the Great Recession, African-Americans had about one-tenth the wealth of whites. Significant wealth gaps exist by age, education, marital status, and income. The implication is that African-Americans continue to face substantial obstacles in the labor, housing and credit markets to rebuilding their wealth and significantly close the wealth gap. The racial wealth gap in 2016 consequently was still much wider than before the Great Recession.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1080/07360932.2018.1451769

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