Racial and Ethnic Differences in Wealth in the Health and Retirement Study

James Smith

Labor and Demography from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This paper examines wealth data in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). In comparison with asset data in other major surveys, the quality of HRS asset data is high. Missing asset data does remain a problem, however, to which future HRS analysts must remain sensitive. Evidence is presented showing that it is no accident that asset data are missing, and solutions for imputing missing data are developed. Finally, racial and ethnic wealth disparities are large. These minority wealth disparities are due in part to differential inheritances and desired bequests as inequities perpetuate themselves across generations: the disparities are also due to lower minority incomes, poorer health, and an excessively narrow definition of wealth that excludes Social Security and employer pensions.

JEL-codes: J (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2004-08-16
Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 26. The Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 30, Supplement, pp. S158-S183, 1995
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (46)

Downloads: (external link)
https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/lab/papers/0408/0408011.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Racial and Ethnic Differences in Wealth in the Health and Retirement Study (1996)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwpla:0408011

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Labor and Demography from University Library of Munich, Germany
Bibliographic data for series maintained by EconWPA ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).