The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is pleased to release Wealth Inequalities in Greater Boston: Do Race and Ethnicity Matter? The new community development discussion paper underscores that large racial and ethnic disparities in wealth and liquid assets persist, even after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic status. This paper complements the descriptive analyses of differences in assets and debts by race and ethnicity in the Boston metro area released in The Color of Wealth in Boston report.
The paper reviews factors influencing wealth accumulation and racial wealth. The analysis shows that membership in any one of Boston’s communities of color included in this study (US-born black, Caribbean black, Puerto Rican, Dominican and other Hispanic) is associated with significantly and substantially fewer liquid assets and lower levels of wealth. Not surprisingly, wealth disparities between whites and communities of color grew along the wealth distribution. These disparities underscore the multigenerational impact of the transmission of wealth and the effect of policies that have systematically increased racial wealth disparities.
