Homeownership, home equity, and Black-owned business starts: examining the impact of racial disparities in housing assets on firm creation

Black households start businesses at a lower rate than Whites, due primarily to differential capital access. Housing wealth is an important source of startup capital; however, due to historical and present-day housing segregation and discrimination, Black households accumulate less housing wealth than Whites. Public and urban policy scholar Rachel Atkins will investigate how much of the observed racial disparities in new business creation are attributable to differences in housing wealth. She will analyze data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics for her study.