Black-White Disposable Income Inequality: The Rising Importance of Single Women

Black-White Disposable Income Inequality: The Rising Importance of Single Women | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Black-White Disposable Income Inequality: The Rising Importance of Single Women Elizabeth Krause This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7077138/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 01 Dec, 2025 Read the published version in International Tax and Public Finance → Version 1 posted 9 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The share of tax units headed by single women is twice as large for Black units than White units, and this gender differential in tax unit structure significantly contributes to Black-White income inequality. I decompose the Black-White disposable income gap by tax unit structure categories to estimate single women’s contribution to racial income inequality and examine the extent to which this is influenced by taxes and transfers at the 10th, 25th, and 50th percentiles. At the median, single mothers account for an average of 26 percent of the gap from 1980-2022, and single women without children account for an average of 11 percent. The share attributable to low-income single mothers has declined in recent years, in large part due to redistribution of the tax system and declining inequality between Black and White single mothers. The portion of the gap explained by single women without children has grown consistently since the 1980s and is made larger by the tax system despite declining inequality between Black and White single-childless-women. Singles, particularly single women, represent an under-investigated group in research on tax policy and racial inequality. I provide evidence that single mothers and single women without children are important to understanding Black-White income inequality relative to single men as well as demographic and economic factors. JEL Codes: H24, J12, J15 inequality women racial gaps household composition taxes government transfers Full Text Additional Declarations Competing interest reported. I report financial support for this or related research from the National Science Foundation (award #2214640). All conclusions are my own. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 01 Dec, 2025 Read the published version in International Tax and Public Finance → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 15 Sep, 2025 Reviews received at journal 14 Sep, 2025 Reviews received at journal 07 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 13 Jul, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 11 Jul, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 11 Jul, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 11 Jul, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 10 Jul, 2025 First submitted to journal 08 Jul, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7077138","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":484691799,"identity":"fe8566f2-09b2-47ad-ad3b-d2f015142fbf","order_by":0,"name":"Elizabeth Krause","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABC0lEQVRIie3Rz0rDMBzA8YSM7FRyTcHpK6QUdDLRV+kopG8gO0gXCfx62n17C0GQHSuBeSmeexc8KdTjDptGC/6DULzJyJcEQsgnBIKQz/cf62OF7EAC0XaDtQviJqQl/JOEqpPY+YOIsoMwQnSzXp7kR4jKZg35flxLydFkNFYOEmqsolkl+bGiZjEDEx/WcsVRlTmJMFglARguyr5GAZTjmzoDjsE4yZkltxt4/SB4A/n0ev5Otm4iCL7U9nJLqCEBkERw+zCs3IQbrMmgSsMrQ1Oyd2+iefWYDpNVFrsIK4qHl+flKRN3EOOn8/yAFTKqm4vRwEW++vYRPZ50Hv+tm78Kn8/n2+neAH/3V+JbGENoAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"University of Kentucky","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Elizabeth","middleName":"","lastName":"Krause","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-07-08 17:23:21","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7077138/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7077138/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10797-025-09935-3","type":"published","date":"2025-12-01T15:57:55+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":97723910,"identity":"c82c5d10-3bc4-400a-adf7-dd285b49dcf1","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-12-08 16:09:36","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1155519,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"KrauseBWInequality.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7077138/v1_covered_58ece57c-79a4-458d-8212-11a1eefcdc17.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"Competing interest reported. 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