Racial and Ethnic Wealth Inequality in the Post-Pandemic Era

Chakrabarti, Rajashri; Emanuel, Natalia; Lahey, Benjamin

Discussion Paper

Racial and Ethnic Wealth Inequality in the Post-Pandemic Era

Abstract: Wealth is unevenly distributed across racial and ethnic groups in the United States. In this first post in a two-part series on wealth inequality, we use the Distributional Financial Accounts (DFA) to document these disparities between Black, Hispanic, and white households from the first quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2023 for wealth and a variety of asset and liability categories. We find that these disparities have been exacerbated since the pandemic, likely due to rapid growth in the financial assets more often held by white individuals.

Keywords: inequality; race; wealth; COVID-19; COVID-19 pandemic;

JEL Classification: D63; J00; G1;