This paper investigates the source of the gap in the relative wealth position of immigrant households residing in Australia, Germany and the United States. Our results indicate that in Germany and the United States wealth differentials are largely the result of disparity in the educational...

This paper analyzes the portfolio allocations of couple-headed, Hispanic families using Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) data. Our results reveal that Hispanic couples as a group are less wealthy than otherwise similar white couples, although there is substantial variation...

This paper uses the Tax Reform Act of 1986 as a natural experiment to evaluate the job mobility response of prime-aged US employees participating in employer sponsored defined benefit pension plans to a reduction in the vesting period for pension rights accrual. We apply...

Evidence of the association between wages and body size –typically measured by the body mass index– appears to be sensitive to estimation methods and samples, and varies across gender and ethnic groups. One factor that may contribute to this sensitivity is the non-linearity of the...

SIPP data are used to analyze the wealth of the U.S. foreign-born population. We find that the median wealth level of U.S.-born couples is 2.3 times the median of foreign-born couples, while the median wealth level of U.S.-born singles is three times that of foreign-born singles. Further, there...

This paper analyzes the sources of disparities in the relative wealth position of Mexican Americans. Results reveal that wealth gaps are in large part not the result of differences in conditional expected wealth functions. Similarly, income differentials are important, but do not play the...

Is there evidence that households adjust their asset portfolios just prior to retirement in response to a means-tested public pension? We address this question by estimating a system of asset equations constrained to add up to net worth. We find little evidence that in 2006 healthy households or...