Replication Data for: Wealth Begins at Home: The Housing Benefits of the 1944 GI Bill and the Reproduction of Black-White Inequality in Homeownership and Home Value

This article bridges empirical research on wealth inequality and theoretical perspectives on the influence of racial structures to highlight the empirical implications of historic policy on Black-White inequalities in homeownership. Taking the case of the 1944 GI Bill, I deploy the 1960 IPUMS and restricted administrative data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to demonstrate that the GI Bill is linked with increased homeownership and home value for Black and White veterans. Notably, however, because of the differential effects of the HLG across race and significant existing racial inequalities in housing outcomes, the policy exacerbated extant racial inequalities. These inequalities have only persisted and intensified into the contemporary period. Finally, I analyze counterfactual scenarios to interrogate how different factors contributed to these inequalities. I conclude with a discussion of the implications of findings for sociological considerations of stratification processes over time, housing and wealth inequality specifically, and how historic policies have reproduced existing racial inequalities.