Comparing the Effects of Class Origins versus Race in the Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty

Arthur Sakamoto*, Li Hsu, Mary E. Jalufka

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

    4 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Building upon prior research on intergenerational income mobility, we assess class effects versus racial effects on the probability of becoming a poor adult, broken down by gender. We define the class effect (for each race-and-gender group) as the difference between the probability that a person who was born into the lowest income quintile becomes poor and the probability that a person who was born into the highest income quintile becomes poor. For each minority-by-gender group, using Whites as the baseline, the racial effect is defined as the average racial differential in the probability of becoming a poor adult, irrespective of class origins. The results indicate that, for all minority-by-gender groups, the class effect is larger than the racial effect. Our findings underscore the continuing significance of the comparatively large effects of class origins, which have not been adequately acknowledged in recent research.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number257
    JournalSocial Sciences
    Volume11
    Issue number6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jun 2022

    Scopus Subject Areas

    • Social Sciences(all)

    User-Defined Keywords

    • class inequality
    • intergenerational income mobility
    • poverty
    • racial inequality

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