Racial Disparities in Economic Well-Being in the Detroit Metropolitan Area After the Great Recession

September 2013

Lucie Kalousova and Sheldon Danziger, University of Michigan

Download '2013-10-npc-working-paper.pdf'.


Abstract

This chapter uses longitudinal data from the Michigan Recession and Recovery Study to investigate how Detroit-area residents fared in the aftermath of the Great Recession. We focus on the disparities between blacks and non-blacks in three domains of economic well-being: employment, housing, and financial security. For both blacks and non-blacks, we observe that the likelihood of housing and financial insecurity, poverty, and zero or negative net-worth was largely unchanged between the baseline (2009/10) and follow-up (2011) data collections. However, blacks were significantly more likely to experience every one of the examined hardships at both points, even after taking into account educational, gender, and age differentials between the two populations. We discuss the implications of these findings for public policies aimed at reducing racial disparities and poverty.



Keywords:
Discrimination, Employment, Unemployment, and the Labor Market