The Great Recession and Racial Inequality: Evidence from Measures of Economic Well-Being

Abstract:

The Great Recession had a tremendous impact on low-income Americans, in particular Black and Latino Americans. The losses in terms of employment and earnings are matched only by the losses in terms of real wealth. In many ways, however, these losses are merely a continuation of trends that have been unfolding for more than two decades. We examine the changes in overall economic well-being and inequality, as well as changes in racial economic inequality during and since the Great Recession. We find that the Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being inequality between White and Black households decreased during the Great Recession but since 2010, racial inequality in terms of LIMEW has increased. We find that changes in base income, taxes, and income from non-home wealth during the Great Recession produced declines in overall inequality, while only taxes reduced between-group racial inequality.     

Bread and Social Justice: Measurement of Social Welfare and Inequality Using Anthropometrics

We address the question of the measurement of health achievement and inequality in the context of variables exhibiting an inverted-U relation with health and well-being. The chosen approach is to measure separately achievement and inequality in the health increasing range of the variable, from a lower survival bound a to an optimum value m, and in the health decreasing range from m to an upper survival bound b. Because in the health decreasing range, the equally distributed equivalent value associated with a distribution is decreasing in progressive transfers, the paper introduces appropriate relative and absolute achievement and inequality indices to be used for variables exhibiting a negative association with well-being. We then discuss questions pertaining to consistent measurement across health attainments and shortfalls, as well as the ordering of distributions exhibiting an inverted-U relation with well-being. An illustration of the methodology is provided using a group of five Arab countries.     

MEASURING INEQUALITY WITHIN THE HOUSEHOLD

The purpose of this paper is to explore a number of measures of inequality within households. We focus primarily on two types of inequality, first, inequality in money incomes, second, inequality in control over household resources. Control is measured in two ways: first, as control over the management of household finances and, second, as influence over household decision-making. We discuss arguments for and against each of the measures of inequality, and compare the measures against one another in terms of the level of inequality each measure finds. The paper does not attempt to explain inequality; instead, its aim is to discuss the question “What is it that we wish to explain?”

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ABSTRACT

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Abstract:

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