Authors:

Scott Winship, The Brookings Institute, Former Fellow

Richard V. Reeves, The Brookings Insititute, Senior Fellow

Katherine Guyot, The Brookings Insitute, Research Assistant

Published March 22, 2018

Summary

Black Americans born poor are much less likely to move up the income ladder than those in other racial groups, especially whites. Why? Many factors are at work, including educational inequalities, neighborhood effects, workplace discrimination, parenting, access to credit, rates of incarceration, and so on. These researchers confirm the stark differences in upward earnings mobility for black men compared to both black women and whites. They confirm that black women, despite their solid earnings mobility, have very low family income mobility. They then estimate the impact of racial differences in marriage rates by simulating higher marriage rates among black women and find no significant effects.

Full Article:

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/es_20180322_inheritance-of-poverty-final.pdf

Link to researcher’s data:

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/es_20180322_inheritance-of-poverty-results.xlsx