Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Dec;79(6):1196-1225.
doi: 10.1177/0003122414554947.

Racial Inequality Trends and the Intergenerational Persistence of Income and Family Structure

Deirdre Bloome  1
Affiliations

Racial Inequality Trends and the Intergenerational Persistence of Income and Family Structure

Deirdre Bloome. Am Sociol Rev. 2014 Dec.

Abstract

Racial disparity in family incomes remained remarkably stable over the past 40 years in the United States despite major legal and social reforms. Previous scholarship presents two primary explanations for persistent inequality through a period of progressive change. One highlights continuity: because socioeconomic status is transmitted from parents to children, disparities created through histories of discrimination and opportunity denial may dissipate slowly. The second highlights change: because family income results from joining individual earnings in family units, changing family compositions can offset individuals' changing economic chances. I examine whether black-white family income inequality trends are better characterized by the persistence of existing disadvantage (continuity) or shifting forms of disadvantage (change). I combine cross-sectional and panel analysis using Current Population Survey, Panel Study of Income Dynamics, Census, and National Vital Statistics data. Results suggest that African Americans experience relatively extreme intergenerational continuity (low upward mobility) and discontinuity (high downward mobility); both helped maintain racial inequality. Yet, intergenerational discontinuities allow new forms of disadvantage to emerge. On net, racial inequality trends are better characterized by changing forms of disadvantage than by continuity. Economic trends were equalizing but demographic trends were disequalizing; as family structures shifted, family incomes did not fully reflect labor-market gains.

Keywords: demography; inequality; mobility; race.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Black Family Income as a Share of White Family Income, Comparing Means and Medians (left) and Percentiles across the Family Income Distribution (right) Source: March Current Population Survey data.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Observed Distribution of Black Adults across Family Income Quintiles (left) and Observed Percent Change between 1968 and 2008 in the Distributional Differences between Black and White Adults (right) Source: March Current Population Survey data.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Intergenerational Family Income Transition Matrices by Race, Women Only Source: Panel Study of Income Dynamics data.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Intergenerational Transitions between Family Income Quintiles and Family Structures by Race, Women Only Source: Panel Study of Income Dynamics data.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Observed and Counterfactual Distributions of Adults across Family Income Quintiles Source: March Current Population Survey, Panel Study of Income Dynamics, National Vital Statistics, and decennial Census data. Note: Counterfactuals from intergenerational continuity models (see text for details). Left panel shows black adults only; right panel shows percent change between 1968 and 2008 in the distributional differences between black and white adults.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Comparison of Markov Population Projection Estimates of Black-White Family Income Inequality and Observed Black-White Family Income Inequality Source: Panel Study of Income Dynamics, National Vital Statistics, decennial Census, and March Current Population Survey data. Note: Fertility by race only in top panel and fertility by race, class, and marital status in bottom panel.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Income and Family Structure Inequality Trends within and between Races, All Adults and Women Only Source: March Current Population Survey data. Note: Entropy summarizes within-race inequality (across income quintiles and across family structure groups); KL divergence summarizes between-race inequality.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Economic Convergence and Demographic Divergence across Races Source: March Current Population Survey data. Note: Top panel shows percent with family income in lowest income quintile, among unmarried parents, by race and year. Bottom panel shows percent unmarried parents, among all adults, by race and year.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Observed and Counterfactual Distributions of Adults across Family Income Quintiles Source: March Current Population Survey data. Note: Counterfactuals from economic and demographic change models (see text for details). Left panel shows black adults only; right panel shows percent change between 1968 and 2008 in the distributional differences between black and white adults.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Amato Paul. Explaining the Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce. Journal of Marriage and the Family. 1996;58(3):628–40. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Angrist Joshua, Lavy Victor, Schlosser Analia. Multiple Experiments for the Causal Link between the Quantity and Quality of Children. Journal of Labor Economics. 2010;28(4):773–823.
    1. Autor David H, Katz Lawrence F, Kearney Melissa S. The Polarization of the U.S. Labor Market. American Economic Review. 2006;96(2):189–94.
    1. Beller Emily. Bringing Intergenerational Social Mobility Research into the Twenty-first Century: Why Mothers Matter. American Sociological Review. 2009;74(4):507–528.
    1. Bennett Neil, Bloom David, Craig Patricia. The Divergence of Black and White Marriage Patterns. American Journal of Sociology. 1989;95(3):692–722.

LinkOut - more resources