The impact of monetary policy shocks on net worth and consumption across races in the United States

The aim of this paper is to determine whether monetary policy has a heterogeneous impact on net worth and consumption across races in the United States by applying several empirical methodologies and combining macro and micro data. The results suggest that an expansionary monetary shock increases the race gap in the short run in terms of net worth and that this is explained by differences in portfolio composition, especially between black and white households. Consequently, the heterogeneous wealth effect among these racial groups means that white households retain a higher elasticity than some minorities with respect to different forms of consumption as a consequence of a monetary policy shock. Although the heterogeneous effects of monetary policy across race are primarily explained by the different observable characteristics of households, a non-negligible part of this heterogeneity could be explained by the credit constraints faced by racial minorities that determine the composition of their wealth.