Title: The inheritance of black poverty: It’s all about the men
Headings: The inheritance of black poverty: It’s all about the men
The inheritance of black poverty: It’s all about the men
Black men, stuck in poverty: Chetty’s latest
Black and white Americans, on different starting blocks
Almost half of black youths grew up in the bottom quintile
Share of youths ages 14 to 16 with parents in each income quintile
Gender and race gaps in upward mobility
Black men have low earnings mobility
Share of youths from the bottom quintile who remain in the bottom quintile as adults
Black men and women have low family income mobility
Percentage of youths from the bottom quintile who remain in the bottom quintile of family income as adults
Lower marriage rates aren’t hurting black mobility
Simulating marriage does little to improve mobility for black women
Percentage of youths from the bottom quintile who remain in the bottom quintile of simulated family income
Help black men to help black families

Content: black men do poorly on both counts. Black women do reasonably well on the first and very poorly on the second. This result is probably driven by the fact that black women tend to create families with black men who do poorly on both counts and thus bring down the family income results for black women. Lower marriage rates aren’t hurting black mobility
Why? Various explanations could be given. The most obvious is that, assuming marriages or cohabitation mostly occur within racial groups, black women’s family position is damaged directly or indirectly by the poor outcomes for black men. If white women end up with white men, who in terms of their earnings are more than twice as likely to escape poverty as black men, their family income will be higher. Equally, if black women are more likely than white women to end up as single, they will also record a lower family income. We set out to model the impact of household formation by artificially equalizing the marriage rates of black women and white women. The results will of course depend not just on whether they marry, but also on whom they marry.