Assets and African Americans: Attempting to Capitalize on Hopes for Children through College Savings Accounts

Although some racial inequalities have lessened in the half-century since the passage of the first major civil rights legislation, the racial wealth gap remains and in recent years seems to be widening. Households with children are the least likely to be asset secure or have sufficient resources to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Review of Black political economy 2014, Vol.41 (3), p.337-356
Main Authors: Shanks, Trina R. Williams, Nicoll, Kerri Leyda, Johnson, Toni
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African Americans
Child development
Children & youth
Civil rights
Economic Policy
Economic theory
Economics
Economics and Finance
Economics of education
Equity
Families & family life
Financial literacy
Focus groups
Higher education
Household economics
Households
Income inequality
Low income
Low income groups
Personal finance
Political Science
Poverty
Preschool children
Race
Racial discrimination
Savings
Savings accounts
Sociology
Studies
U.S.A
Wealth
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Summary:Although some racial inequalities have lessened in the half-century since the passage of the first major civil rights legislation, the racial wealth gap remains and in recent years seems to be widening. Households with children are the least likely to be asset secure or have sufficient resources to enable investment in opportunities for mobility. Viewing inequality from this perspective indicates that what households are able to save and invest for the future might have a more lasting impact on the life chances of children than their current income and consumption. Summarizing data from the Saving for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Downpayment (SEED) Initiative, a quasi-experimental study that is part of a national demonstration of Child Development Accounts (CDAs) in the United States, this paper describes how African-American households engage with one important investment opportunity – college savings accounts for their pre-school children. Combining account monitoring, survey, interview and focus group data, we explore the reasons that many households chose not to open accounts or invest their own money. We offer suggestions for making asset development programs viable for low-income African-American families and their children.
ISSN:0034-6446
1936-4814
DOI:10.1007/s12114-014-9185-y