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Working Paper
On the Optimality of Differential Asset Taxation
Phelan, Tom (2019-08-29)
How should a utilitarian government balance redistributive concerns with the need to provide incentives for business creation and investment? Should they tax business profits, the (risk-free) savings of owners, or some combination of both? To address this question, this paper presents a model in which the desirability of differential asset taxation emerges endogenously from the presence of agency frictions. I consider an environment in which entrepreneurs hire workers and rent capital to produce output subject to privately observed shocks and have the ability to both divert capital to private ...
Working Papers , Paper 19-17

Discussion Paper
How Have Racial and Ethnic Earnings Gaps Changed after COVID-19?
Chatterji-Len, Kasey; García, Daniel I.; Pinkovskiy, Maxim L.; Chakrabarti, Rajashri (2022-10-20)
Racial and ethnic earnings disparities have been salient features of the U.S. economy for decades. Between the pandemic-driven recession in 2020 and the rising inflation since 2021, workers’ real and nominal earnings have seen rapid change. To get a sense of how recent economic conditions have affected earnings disparities, we examine real and nominal weekly earnings trends for Asian, Black, Hispanic, and white workers. We find that average real weekly earnings have been declining in the past year, but less so for Black and Hispanic workers than for white and Asian workers. Black and ...
Liberty Street Economics , Paper 20221020a

Working Paper
Seven Economic Facts About the U.S. Racial Wealth Gap
Broady, Kristen; Booth-Bell, Darlene; Griffin, Taylor (2022-07)
Using data from the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances and the U.S. Census Bureau, along with data and research from other sources, this paper presents seven economic facts about the racial wealth gap in the U.S. We present data on racial disparities in income, employment, homeownership, education, access to credit, and retirement savings – all factors that contribute to a significant and persistent gap in net worth between households of different races and ethnicities, particularly between Black households and White households. While none of the economic factors listed fully explains the ...
Working Paper Series , Paper WP 2022-32

Report
The Limited Role of Intergenerational Transfers for Understanding Racial Wealth Disparities
Sabelhaus, John Edward; Thompson, Jeffrey P. (2023-03-07)
Transfers of wealth between generations—whether through inheritances or inter vivos gifts—are less important in explaining racial disparities in wealth than might be expected. While this factor looms large in the media’s discussions of racial inequality, it explains relatively little of the disparities evident in the data. One reason is that most people, regardless of race, receive no inheritance or other transfer of substantial value. In addition, most recipients of inheritances ultimately consume those bequests and do not plan to leave substantial gifts to their offspring. Further, ...
Current Policy Perspectives

Report
A New Look at Racial Disparities Using a More Comprehensive Wealth Measure
Thompson, Jeffrey P.; Volz, Alice Henriques (2021-08-16)
Most research measuring disparities in wealth by race relies on data that exclude resources that are disproportionately important to low-wealth and non-white families, namely defined benefit (DB) pensions and Social Security. This paper finds that once these resources are included, disparities in wealth between white families and Black and Hispanic families are substantially smaller and that they are not rising over time. The powerful equalizing roles of DB pensions and Social Security highlighted here are further motivation for maintaining their fiscal health. This paper also presents ...
Current Policy Perspectives

Working Paper
The Covid-19 Pandemic Spurred Growth in Automation: What Does this Mean for Minority Workers?
Broady, Kristen; Booth-Bell, Darlene; Barr, Anthony; Perry, Ryan (2023-02-27)
The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated trends in automation as many employers seek to save on labor costs amid widespread illness, increased worker leverage, and market pressures to onshore supply chains. While existing research has explored how automation may displace non-specialized jobs, there is typically less attention paid to how this displacement may interact with preexisting structural issues around racial inequality. This analysis updates that of a 2021 Brookings paper by the authors, finding that Black and Hispanic workers continue to be overrepresented in the 30 occupations with the ...
Working Paper Series , Paper WP 2023-06

Report
Understanding the Linkages between Climate Change and Inequality in the United States
Avtar, Ruchi; Blickle, Kristian S.; Chakrabarti, Rajashri; Janakiraman, Janavi; Pinkovskiy, Maxim L. (2021-11-01)
We conduct a review of the existing academic literature to outline possible links between climate change and inequality in the United States. First, researchers have shown that the impact of both physical and transition risks may be uneven across location, income, race, and age. This is driven by a region’s geography as well as its adaptation capabilities. Second, measures that individuals and governments take to adapt to climate change and transition to lower emissions risk increasing inequality. Finally, while federal aid and insurance coverage can mitigate the direct impact of physical ...
Staff Reports , Paper 991

Discussion Paper
Rural Households Hit Hardest by Inflation in 2021-22
Chakrabarti, Rajashri; Garcia, Dan; Pinkovskiy, Maxim L. (2023-01-18)
To conclude our series, we present disparities in inflation rates by U.S. census region and rural status between June 2019 and the present. Notably, rural households were hit by inflation the hardest during the 2021-22 inflationary episode. This is intuitive, as rural households rely on transportation, and especially on motor fuel, to a much greater extent than urban households do. More generally, the recent rise in inflation has affected households in the South more than the national average, and households in the Northeast by less than the national average, though this difference has ...
Liberty Street Economics , Paper 20230118c

Working Paper
Racial Wealth Gains and Gaps: Nine Facts About the Disparities
Broady, Kristen; Barr, Anthony; Booth-Bell, Darlene; Cain, Lucas (2024-02-08)
Every three years, the Federal Reserve System conducts the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF)—one of the most detailed examinations of household wealth in the U.S. The two most recent surveys were conducted in 2019 and 2022, thus providing a valuable resource to researchers exploring wealth changes during the Covid-19 pandemic and recovery. This working paper draws from the SCF and other important sources to present data on the racial wealth gap and socioeconomic factors that impact the racial disparity in net worth between households by race and ethnicity. We demonstrate that the racial ...
Working Paper Series , Paper WP 2024-03

Working Paper
The Optimal Taxation of Business Owners
Phelan, Tom (2019-11-19)
Business owners in the United States are disproportionately represented among the very wealthy and are exposed to substantial idiosyncratic risk. Further, recent evidence indicates business income primarily reflects returns to the human (rather than financial) capital of the owner. Motivated by these facts, this paper characterizes the optimal taxation of income and wealth in an environment where business income depends jointly on innate ability, luck, and the accumulated past effort exerted by the owner. I show that in (constrained) efficient allocations, more productive entrepreneurs ...
Working Papers , Paper 19-26

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