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Marriage, Work, and Racial Inequalities in Poverty: Evidence From the United States
Author(s) -
Thiede Brian C.,
Kim Hyojung,
Slack Tim
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of marriage and family
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.578
H-Index - 159
eISSN - 1741-3737
pISSN - 0022-2445
DOI - 10.1111/jomf.12427
Subject(s) - poverty , workforce , odds , inequality , ethnic group , demographic economics , psychological intervention , race (biology) , demography , logistic regression , development economics , sociology , economics , psychology , economic growth , medicine , gender studies , mathematical analysis , mathematics , psychiatry , anthropology
This article explores recent racial and ethnic inequalities in poverty, estimating the share of racial poverty differentials that can be explained by variation in family structure and workforce participation. The authors use logistic regression to estimate the association between poverty and race, family structure, and workforce participation. They then decompose between‐race differences in poverty risk to quantify how racial disparities in marriage and work explain observed inequalities in the log odds of poverty. They estimate that 47.7% to 48.9% of Black–White differences in poverty risk can be explained by between‐group variance in these two factors, while only 4.3% to 4.5% of the Hispanic–White differential in poverty risk can be explained by these variables. The findings underscore the continued but varied association between racial disparities in poverty and labor and marriage markets. Clear racial differences in the origin of poverty suggest that policy interventions will not have uniformly effective impacts on poverty reduction.