Reducing Retirement Inequality Building Wealth and Old-Age Resilience

Many older Americans today are poorly prepared to finance their retirement years, and such under-preparedness is especially acute for members of disadvantaged racial and ethnic minority groups. Black and Hispanic families, for example, have only a quarter of the amount of net private wealth (assets minus liabilities) compared to White families. Moreover, racial wealth gaps have not diminished much in the past four decades, in part because Whites tend to save more in and withdraw less from employer-sponsored retirement plans than do their Black and Hispanic counterparts. The studies herein provide a range of perspectives on the causes and consequences of retirement wealth inequality, along with suggested opportunities to close the gaps. The contributors explore new datasets, analyze historical trends in income and wealth disparities, and evaluate alternative wealth and inequality measures. They also evaluate the roles of differential access to financial, housing, and human capital, and the role of the social security program. While the latter is a great equalizer, narrowing racial gaps considerably, the program faces insolvency and, without reform, it will be unable to pay full scheduled benefits within a decade. This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

1 - Diversity, Inclusion, and Inequality in Retirement Wellbeing: An Overview
2 - Retirement Assets and the Wealth Gaps for Black and Hispanic Households
3 - Changes in Racial Gaps in Retirement Security over Time
4 - Understanding Trends in Hispanic and African American Retirement Preparedness in the US
5 - Wills, Wealth, and Race
6 - The Racial Wealth Gap and the Legacy of Racially Restrictive Housing Covenants
7 - Racial and Ethnic Differences in Longevity Perceptions and Implications for Financial Decision-Making
8 - Social Security and the Racial Wealth Gap
9 - Financial Inclusion and Retirement Preparedness in the United States
10 - How Racial Differences in Housing Returns Shape Retirement Security
11 - Racial Differences in Debt Delinquencies and Implications for Retirement Preparedness
12 - Understanding Financial Vulnerability among Asians, Blacks, and Hispanics in the United States
13 - Tax Policy to Reduce Racial Retirement Wealth Inequality
14 - Improving the Financial Security of Workers of Color through Employee Financial Wellness Programs
15 - Enhancing Retirement Wealth and Reducing Retiree Inequality: Emergency Savings 460 Accounts and Other Policy Options
16 - Would Baby Bonds Reduce Racial Retirement Wealth Inequality?

Olivia S. Mitchell is the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Professor, Executive Director of the Pension Research Council, and Director of the Boettner Center on Pensions and Retirement Research, all at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Concurrently she is a Research Associate at the NBER and Independent Director of the Allspring Mutual Fund Boards. She is also a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association. Her research focuses on pensions, risk management, financial literacy, household finance, and public finance. Nikolai Roussanov is Moise Y. Safra Professor and Professor of Finance at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research explores asset pricing, macroeconomics, currency and commodity markets, entrepreneurship, and individual financial behaviour. At Wharton he has taught courses on Behavioural Finance, Fixed Income Securities, and Consumer Financial Decision Making to undergraduate and MBA students, as well as Empirical Methods in Finance aimed at students in the doctoral program.