Portraits of the Assets and Liabilities of Low-Income Families

Reviews the assets, debts, and net worth of low-income families compared with middle-income families, as well as those of other at-risk families such as single-parent and minority families. Examines the link between asset holding, net worth, and income

Enabling Families to Weather Emergencies and Develop: The Role of Assets

Discusses the need for low-income families to build assets for emergencies and employment gaps as well as for long-term stability. Suggests policies to improve savings and ownership opportunities such as incentives and better regulation of small loans

Self-Employment and Economic Mobility

Describes how self-employment may affect mobility differently from wage or salary employment. Reviews research showing how diverse self-employed workers' intragenerational mobility may differ by education, family background, race/ethnicity, and gender

Childhood Poverty Persistence: Facts and Consequences

Examines the persistence and effects of childhood poverty by studying the incidence and duration of poverty among African-American and white children from birth to age 17 and adult outcomes including income, educational attainment, and employment

Do Welfare and IDA Program Policies Affect Asset Holdings?

Analyzes how more lenient state asset tests and eligibility rules, more generous Individual Development Account program rules, and withdrawal restrictions and incentives for restricted savings accounts affect low-income families' asset accumulation

Do Assets Help Families Cope With Adverse Events?

Compares the extent to which families with liquid assets are better able to maintain their material well-being when adverse events affecting income such as job loss or illness occurs than families without assets. Compares effects by income distribution

The Balance Sheets of Low-Income Households: What We Know About Their Assets and Liabilities.

The Balance Sheets of Low-Income Households: What We Know About Their Assets and Liabilities

The Effects of Holding Assets on Social and Economic Outcomes of Families: A Review of Theory and Evidence

The Effects of Holding Assets on Social and Economic Outcomes of Families: A Review of Theory and Evidenc

Reforming America’s regressive asset-building subsidies would help to address increasing wealth inequalities

Wealth inequality in the United States increased over the last several decades and worsened as a result of the Great Recession, which reduced the average wealth of families by nearly 30 percent. In new research, Signe-Mary McKernan and Caroline Ratcliffe, with Gene Steuerle and Sisi Zhang, measure disparities in wealth accumulation and loss. They argue that social welfare and tax policies pay too little attention to wealth building and mobility relative to consumption and income. Reforming America’s regressive asset-building policies would hel

Less Than Equal: Racial Disparities in Wealth Accumulation

When it comes to economic gaps between whites and communities of color in the United States, income inequality tells part of the story. But let's not forget about wealth. Wealth isn't just money in the bank, it's insurance against tough times, tuition to get a better education and a better job, savings to retire on, and a springboard into the middle class. In short, wealth translates into opportunity