%0 Book %D 2008 %T Transmitting Inequality: Wealth and the American Family %A Elmelech, Yuval %K Adult children %K Demographics %K Net Worth and Assets %X While the United States is the world's richest nation, the distribution of private property and wealth among Americans is often comprised of alarmingly disparate portions. With a rapidly aging and increasingly diverse population, the interdependence between generations, institutions, and social spheres has become essential to social stratification processes in contemporary American society. In this authoritative work, Yuval Elmelech investigates the role that family transactions of material resources play in the stratification system. Drawing on empirical evidence from a broad array of sources, Transmitting Inequality provides an interdisciplinary framework for examining the social, demographic, and institutional structures that shape the distribution of property and wealth in the United States. %I Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc. %C Lanham %G eng %4 Wealth/Intergenerational Transfers/Bequests/Social Stratification %$ 19120 %0 Thesis %D 2002 %T Transmitting inequality: An asset-based analysis of racial and ethnic inequality and its intergenerational transmission %A Elmelech, Yuval %K Adult children %K Demographics %K Net Worth and Assets %K Public Policy %X This dissertation explores the determinants and socioeconomic consequences of inequality in material assets among middle-aged American households. Using survey data from the Health and Retirement study (HRS), and utilizing suitable quantitative techniques, this study establishes a conceptual ground which brings back the critical role private property and kinship relations play in contemporary stratification processes. This study shows that in the contemporary post-transitional, multi-asset society, two social mechanisms of closure and exclusion--marriage and inheritance--intervene in the connection between position in the labor market and position in the commodity market. Because the structure and the socioeconomic function of the family vary across racial/ethnic lines, I argue that the framework developed in this study is especially useful to the understanding of racial and ethnic inequality and its perpetuation across generations. %I Columbia University %8 2002 %G eng %U https://proxy.lib.umich.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/docview/60438081?accountid=14667 %4 Sociology, Individual and Family Studies (0628) %$ 5005 %+ ISBN 0-493-50617-9 %! Transmitting inequality: An asset-based analysis of racial and ethnic inequality and its intergenerational transmission