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Black and White Wealth Differentials in the United States: Explaining and Recreating Persistent Inequality

Fenaba R. Addo & Daniel Auguste

Annual Review of Sociology2025https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-090324-022010article
AJG 4*ABDC A*
Weight
0.37

Abstract

This review explores research on the sources of Black and White wealth and debt differentials and how these differentials recreate inequalities in both wealth and nonwealth outcomes. We discuss how the relationship between wealth and life outcomes is bidirectional, yet studies of racial wealth inequality overwhelmingly focus on wealth as an outcome. We suggest that studies that examine the relationship from wealth to life outcomes are necessary to enable full understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the production and reproduction of racial wealth inequality and to identify policies in the United States to reduce racial inequality. We highlight research on entrepreneurship, race, and wealth to illustrate these dynamics. We conclude with a call for scholars to focus on community-level wealth, given scholarly and policy interests in closing the racial wealth gap.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-090324-022010

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@article{fenaba2025,
  title        = {{Black and White Wealth Differentials in the United States: Explaining and Recreating Persistent Inequality}},
  author       = {Fenaba R. Addo & Daniel Auguste},
  journal      = {Annual Review of Sociology},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-090324-022010},
}

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Black and White Wealth Differentials in the United States: Explaining and Recreating Persistent Inequality

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Evidence weight

0.37

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.16 × 0.4 = 0.06
M · momentum0.53 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.