Scholars and public policy experts alike have been bedeviled for years by the large and persistent racial differences in economic outcomes. Differences in income or earnings are the usual index on which most discussion focuses. However, differences in wealth - the sum total of what people own, minus what they owe - dwarf these income differences. This course will do three main things. First, it will discuss the best current evidence about the extent of racial and class wealth inequality, both in the U.S. and around the world. Differences in the level of overall wealth; differences in the propensity to hold wealth-increasing assets like housing and stocks; as well as differences in levels of debt will all be explored. Second, drawing from literature in sociology, political science, history, and (especially) economics, alternative theoretical accounts of the reasons for wealth disparities will be discussed. We will discuss as well speculative accounts not presented in the available literature. Finally, we will critically assess a series of public policy initiatives-the inheritance tax, affirmative action, reparations, F.H.A. loans, residential relocation schemes, to take a few examples-which have as their stated or implicit aim the reduction of wealth inequality or its level of persistence.
