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Center for Social Development Research

Race

2016

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social Work

Tax Abatement In Saint Louis: Reforms Could Foster Equitable Development, Claire Dewind, Jennifer Dickey, Ellen O'Neill, Molly W. Metzger Jun 2016

Tax Abatement In Saint Louis: Reforms Could Foster Equitable Development, Claire Dewind, Jennifer Dickey, Ellen O'Neill, Molly W. Metzger

Center for Social Development Research

Across the United States, municipal governments use tax abatement in various ways to incentivize development and revitalize urban areas. In Saint Louis, historical housing trends related to deindustrialization, redlining, and “white flight” led to the City’s depopulation, creating the current need to incentivize development. However, in certain neighborhoods, development now occurs without tax abatement, and some homeowners and developers receive tax abatement despite being able to afford paying taxes. This points to a need to understand where and when tax abatement is necessary, and whether it is being used effectively. In this brief, we ask the following questions: (1) Does …


Racial Disparities In Student Debt: Evidence From The Refund To Savings Initiative, Samuel H. Taylor, Dana C. Perantie, Nava Kantor, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Shenyang Guo, Ramesh Raghavan May 2016

Racial Disparities In Student Debt: Evidence From The Refund To Savings Initiative, Samuel H. Taylor, Dana C. Perantie, Nava Kantor, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Shenyang Guo, Ramesh Raghavan

Center for Social Development Research

This brief provides evidence that low- and moderate-income (LMI) Black households accumulate significantly more debt in pursuit of a higher education than do LMI White students, even after using rigorous methods to account for race- and debt-related confounders. Using data from the Refund to Savings experiment, the authors find that LMI Black households accrued $7,721 more in student loan debt than their White counterparts did. This finding is crucial in light of the financial vulnerability of this population both before and after college. That vulnerability potentially contributes to diminished returns and exacerbates racial disparities in educational outcomes and wealth accumulation. …