In Today’s Dollars: Quantifying Economic Violence Against Blacks

Robert S. Chirinko

No 11948, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: How much is owed today to Blacks and other groups who have suffered substantial past economic violence? The issue has become extremely relevant given the $105 million reparations program announced by the City of Tulsa on June 1, 2025. To make some progress on this complex issue, this short paper focuses on the economic procedures used to relate some components of the legacy of slavery to compensation in today’s dollars. Two well-defined property losses -- the 1921 Tulsa Riot and the 1874 Freedman’s Bank Failure -- provide concrete examples facilitating a critical examination of three estimation procedures. One is unworkable; one systematically underestimates losses. A third procedure with an element of novelty - assets-as-economic-rights - is proposed that avoids these problems and may prove useful in other discussions concerning reparations and racial wealth gaps that value past economic violence in today’s dollars. A key part of the 2023 California Reparations Plan relies on the first two procedures, and those calculations are reevaluated.

Keywords: reparations; racial wealth gap; economic violence; discrimination; Tulsa riot; Freedman’s bank failure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B41 H81 H84 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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