The racial/ethnic gap in financial literacy in the population and by income

Authors

Marco Angrisani
Sergio Barrera
Luisa R. Blanco
Salvador Contreras, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-17-2020

Abstract

We investigate the determinants of the racial/ethnic gap in financial literacy in the general population and within income classes, with a focus on childhood family circumstances and neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics. Our model explains 48% and 57% of the observed gap for Blacks and Hispanics, respectively. For both groups, differences in individual characteristics and neighborhood socioeconomic status contribute the most to the explained gap. The White–Minority gap narrows when moving from low- to high-income classes, but the ability of the model to explain it decreases monotonically. Identifying which additional barriers put minorities at a disadvantage is key to improve financial literacy.

Comments

© 2020 The Authors. Contemporary Economic Policy published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. on behalf of the Western Economic Association International.

Recommended Citation

Angrisani, M., Barrera, S., Blanco, L.R. & Contreras, S. (2021) The racial/ethnic gap in financial literacy in the population and by income. Contemporary Economic Policy, 39: 524– 536. https://doi.org/10.1111/coep.12507

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Publication Title

Contemporary Economic Policy

DOI

10.1111/coep.12507