Transmitting Inequality: Wealth and the American Family
By (Author) Yuval Elmelech
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
21st May 2008
United States
General
Non Fiction
305.5120973
Paperback
268
Width 154mm, Height 230mm, Spine 19mm
431g
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.
This book is a welcome and important contribution to the stratification literature. Elmelech introduces an original conceptual framework for the study of stratification and inequality by delineating the social mechanisms underlying the causal relations between parental wealth and children economic wellbeing. By so doing, Elmelech expands the scope of stratification research from exclusive focus on labor market outcomes to the impact of family resources and family wealth on economic wellbeing. Transmitting Inequality thus, is a must for students of stratification and inequality. -- Moshe Semyonov, Tel-Aviv Univeristy
Elmelech...weaves a complex, comprehensive narrative....Recommended. * Choice Reviews *
This book is a profound and important contribution to stratification theory. Elmelech demonstrates how inequality in family wealth cascades through the components of life chances and living standards. He convincingly argues that our formulations of social class must be broadened to include considerations of net worth and asset types. -- Seymour Spilerman, Julian C. Levi, Professor of Sociology and Co-Director, Center for the Study of Wealth and Inequality, Columbia University
Yuval Elmelech is associate professor of sociology at Bard College and research associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College.