Choudhury S
Soc Secur Bull. 2001;64(4):1-15.
White households in the United States are far wealthier than black or Hispanic households, a disparity that remains unexplained even after taking into account income and demographic factors. This article uses data from the Health and Retirement Study to examine various components of aggregate wealth, including housing equity, nonhousing equity, financial assets in general, and risky assets in particular. It inspects asset choices by race and ethnicity and assesses whether differences in saving behavior--and, consequently, in rates of return on assets--are possible sources of the wealth gap. It also demonstrates the equalizing effect of pension wealth and Social Security wealth on total wealth. Racial and ethnic differences in housing equity narrow among households in the higher income quartiles, whereas differences in nonhousing equity generally widen as income increases. The widening gap in nonhousing equity stems from differences in financial asset holdings, particularly risky assets. At every income quartile and educational level, the percentage of black and Hispanic households that own risky, higher-yielding assets in considerably smaller than the percentage of white households. Thus, some of the wealth gap appears to be attributable to differences in saving behavior. Understanding how people save--in particular, knowing whether certain people will be more vulnerable financially because of their saving choices--helps policymakers assess older Americans' financial preparedness for retirement and anticipate their economic well-being thereafter. Lower rates of investment in the financial market will probably result in slower wealth creation in minority households. Recognizing this, some organizations are trying to open opportunities for minority households to invest in the financial market. This is a positive step toward narrowing the wealth divide. Such efforts will become even more critical if Social Security reform places increased responsibility on individuals to manage personal accounts.
美国白人家庭远比黑人或西班牙裔家庭富裕，即便考虑到收入和人口因素，这种差距仍然无法解释。本文使用健康与退休研究的数据，来考察总财富的各个组成部分，包括住房净值、非住房净值、一般金融资产，尤其是风险资产。它考察了不同种族和族裔的资产选择，并评估储蓄行为的差异——以及由此产生的资产回报率差异——是否可能是财富差距的根源。它还展示了养老金财富和社会保障财富对总财富的均衡作用。在收入较高的四分位数家庭中，住房净值方面的种族和族裔差异缩小了，而非住房净值方面的差异通常随着收入增加而扩大。非住房净值差距的扩大源于金融资产持有量的差异，尤其是风险资产。在每个收入四分位数和教育水平上，拥有风险较高、收益率较高资产的黑人和西班牙裔家庭的比例，都远低于白人家庭。因此，部分财富差距似乎可归因于储蓄行为的差异。了解人们如何储蓄——特别是，了解某些人是否会因为他们的储蓄选择而在财务上更加脆弱——有助于政策制定者评估美国老年人为退休所做的财务准备，并预测他们此后的经济状况。金融市场较低的投资率可能会导致少数族裔家庭财富创造速度放缓。认识到这一点，一些组织正试图为少数族裔家庭创造投资金融市场的机会。这是朝着缩小财富差距迈出的积极一步。如果社会保障改革让个人承担更多管理个人账户的责任，那么这些努力将变得更加关键。
