
Publication date:
21 May 2008Length of book:
268 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersDimensions:
230x154mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9780742545854
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.