Decoupling Inequality and Stratification in the American Wealth Distribution, 1989-2022

• In Event: Economic Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Roundtable 11: Socioeconomic Inequality

Abstract

Wealth inequality in the United States has grown substantially in recent decades, yet it remains unclear whether social stratification in wealth has intensified as well. Using Survey of Consumer Finances data from 1989 to 2022 and a non-parametric, rank-based stratification metric, we examine trends in wealth stratification across multiple axes of social difference, including racialized group membership, age, education, class, and marital status. We find that although within- and between-group wealth inequality increased for all axes, stratification declined along several historically salient dimensions, indicating increasing overlap in wealth ranks across groups. Educational attainment constitutes a notable exception, with stratification increasing over time. To explain these divergent trends, we decompose overall stratification into contributions from housing and non-housing wealth and into contributions from different regions of the wealth distribution. We find that axes differ not only in the level of stratification they exhibit but also in where and how stratification is generated: housing wealth dynamics account for substantial change for several axes, while non-housing wealth plays a larger role in structuring stratification by racialized group membership and class, and group ordering is driven by different segments of the wealth hierarchy across axes. These findings demonstrate that rising inequality does not necessarily entail more rigid group-based ordering in wealth ranks and underscore the importance of wealth composition and distributional location in shaping patterns of social stratification over time.

Authors

• Jake Burchard, Duke University

• Lisa A. Keister, Duke University