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ECIN Replication Package for "What Role for 'Generational Wealth' in Explaining Racial Wealth Disparities"

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Jeffrey Thompson, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; John Sabelhaus, Brookings Institute

Version: View help for Version V2

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
1.2-Raw-Data			05/30/2025 03:38:PM
1.3-Processed-Data			06/28/2025 07:29:AM
1.4-DO-files			06/25/2025 04:24:PM
1.5-Results			05/30/2025 10:26:AM
A1. ReadME for Sabelhaus Thompson EI - revised June 28 2025.pdf	application/pdf	513.2 KB	06/28/2025 03:26:AM

Project Citation:

Thompson, Jeffrey, and Sabelhaus, John. ECIN Replication Package for “What Role for ‘Generational Wealth’ in Explaining Racial Wealth Disparities.” Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-06-28. https://doi.org/10.3886/E226964V2

Project Description

Summary: The study explores the role of "intergenerational wealth" - or inheritances and inter vivos transfers - in explaining racial disparities in wealth for the United States using data from the Federal Reserve Board's triennial Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), supplemented by additional data including estimates for Defined Benefit pension values, lifetime earnings, and "reconciled inheritance" values that are designed to be used with the SCF. The core SCF data and the supplemental files are for the 1989 to 2019 cross-sections of the survey.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: wealth; inequality; racial disparities; inheritance

JEL Classification:
      D14 Household Saving; Personal Finance
      D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
      D63 Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
      J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
      J32 Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions

Manuscript Number: ECIN-Jan-2025-0035

Geographic Coverage: United States

Time Period(s): 1989 – 2019

Universe: United States non-institutionalized "primary economic units," a distinct concept used in the SCF that is based on a survey of households, but in practice more similar to "family" than "household."

Data Type(s): survey data

Collection Notes: The original FRB SCF data are supplemented by several additional data (DB pension values, lifetime earnings, and "reconciled inheritances") sources which are themselves originally developed using the SCF.

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Published Versions

V3 [2025-07-29]

V2 [2025-06-28]

V1 [2025-04-17]

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