Racial differences in per capita income, 1960-76: The importance of household size, headship, and labor force participation

Abstract

Racial differences in average per capita income are decomposed, as are changes over time for both races. The 1960-76 decline in household size accounted for 13 percent of the per capita income inprovement of both races. Whereas real increases in earnings of husbands contributed most to improvements in well-being in husband-wife households, increases in income from sources other than earnings were most important to female headed households. During a period in which a growing proportion of both races resided in female headed households and racial differences in living arrangements widened, the per capita income of female headed households relative to husband-wife households declined. © 1980 Population Association of America.