Doctoral Dissertation Research: Transmitting Inequality: An Asset-based Analysis of Racial Ethic Inequality and its Intergenarational Transmission

拟议的博士论文研究项目的目的是探索代际财富转移如何影响当代美国社会黑人、白人和西班牙裔社区之间和内部的种族和民族资产不平等。这项研究建立在社会分层理论的基础上，并假设物质资源的继承是一个越来越重要的因素，它决定了以下方面的种族和族裔差异：(1)资产的所有权和规模；(2)资产产生的收入；(3)活人之间向儿童转让礼物。分析两项全国性调查的数据，并对每个种族/民族使用不同的模型，将密切研究两个年龄段的人群：1)在大萧条之前出生的老年人，他们在二战后经历了财产所有权的显著扩大；2)由于经济和人口结构的变化，婴儿潮一代最有可能受到前所未有的经济资源代际转移的影响。

The aim of the proposed doctoral dissertation research project is to explore how intergenerational transfers of wealth affect racial and ethnic inequality in assets between and within the Black, White and Hispanic communities in contemporary American society. The study builds on theories of social stratification and hypothesizes that inheritance of material resources is an increasingly important factor which determines racial and ethnic disparity in (1) ownership and magnitude of assets; (2) income generated from assets; and (3) transfers of inter-vivos gifts to children. Analyzing data from two national surveys, and applying different models to each of the racial/ethnic groups, two age cohorts will be closely studied: 1) the elderly who were born before the depression, and have experienced a prominent expansion in property ownership in the post World War II era; and 2) the 'baby-boomers' who, as a result of economic and demographic changes, are the most likely to be affected by intergenerational transfers of unprecedented amount of financial resources.