Contents
Contributors
Foreword / Melvin L. Oliver
Introduction / Thomas M. Shapiro and Edward N. Wolff
Part I. Overview of Asset Ownership in the United States
Chapter 1. The Importance of Assets / Thomas M. Shapiro
Chapter 2. Recent Trends in Wealth Ownership, from 1983 to 1998 / Edward N. Wolff
Chapter 3. Access to Wealth among Older Workers in the 1990s and How It Is Distributed: Data from the Health and Retirement Study / Richard V. Burkhauser and Robert R. Weathers II
Chapter 4. The Role of Intergenerational Transfers in Spreading Asset Ownership / Mark O. Wilhelm
Part II. Asset Accumulation among the Poor
Chapter 5. Asset Accumulation among Low-Income Households / Stacie Carney and William G. Gale
Chapter 6. More Than Money: The Role of Assets in the Survival Strategies and Material Well-Being of the Poor / Kathryn Edin
Chapter 7. Housing as a Means of Asset Accumulation: A Good Strategy for the Poor? / Nancy A. Denton
Part III. Policies Designed to Promote Asset Ownership among the Poor
Chapter 8. The Un(credit)worthy Poor: Historical Perspectives on Policies to Expand Assets and Credit / Mark J. Stern
Chapter 9. Asset-Building Policy and Programs for the Poor / Michael Sherraden
Chapter 10. Assets and the Tax Code / Laurence S. Seidman
Chapter 11. Wrap-Up with Rapporteurs / John Sibley Butler, Dalton Conley, Robert Haveman, Seymour Spilerman