Beginning Monday, October 7, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Liberty Street Economics blog will begin a six-part series examining several facets of inequality including, wage, income growth, student debt default, college cost subsidies, health, and home price expectations.
The series will run through October 16 and feature the following posts:
“Introduction to Heterogeneity Series: Understanding Causes and Implications of Various Inequalities” will introduce the series and briefly summarize the next six blog posts.
“Some Places Are Much More Unequal Than Others” looks at the sources of regional wage inequality in the United States and explains where wage inequality is the greatest.
“Job Ladders and Careers” explores disparities in lifetime earnings among different individuals and explores the reasons behind these inequalities.
“Who Borrows for College – and Who Repays?” investigates the differing experiences of student loan borrowers and looks at outcomes by zip code. The federal student loan program distributes loans to borrowers across the income spectrum without regard to creditworthiness. While the number of borrowers might be similar across zip code income quartiles, repayment and default outcomes vary significantly.
“Is Free College the Solution to Student Debt Woes? Studying the Heterogeneous Impacts of Merit-Aid Programs” looks at the effect of subsidies to college cost on short-term educational and long-term student debt and delinquency outcomes. Further, it explores whether there are differences in these effects by neighborhood composition.
“Does U.S. Health Inequality Reflect Income Inequality – or Something Else?” summarizes recent research showing that life expectancy among Americans is becoming increasingly correlated with income, and explores what may be contributing to this trend.
“Optimists and Pessimists in the Housing Market” looks at how perceptions of past housing prices may shape predictions for the future, and investigates whether these tendencies shape participation in the housing market.
The blog posts will be accessible each morning through the Liberty Street Economics blog and on the Economic Research Tracker, the New York Fed’s iPad® and iPhone® app.
For more information about the substance of the blog series, please contact Andrea.Priest@ny.frb.org or Desmond.Lee@ny.frb.org.
