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Title: How did the GI Bill Differently Impact the Incomes of Black and White World War II Veterans?
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2023
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Abstract: A key facet in the development of the American middle class in the 20th century was the Servicemen Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill), which provided numerous benefits to World War II Veterans, such as lower mortgages, loans, and most importantly, funding to attend universities or vocational school. The ability to access affordable higher education and vocational training is what provided most Americans the ability to move to the middle class and build generational wealth. Unfortunately, while the GI Bill was race-neutral in its language, the implementation of the GI Bill did not challenge existing institutions of discrimination and segregation, so Black Americans were mostly unable to take advantage of the benefits of the GI Bill, despite their accomplishments as American soldiers. This lack of access to build generational wealth has left a gap in racial wealth to this day. This research analyzed how the Total Personal Incomes of male Black and White World War II veterans changed after the passage of the GI Bill in 1944 and the differences between Black and White veteran incomes by using the Census Data from the IPUMS USA database to analyze the Total Personal Income of male Black and White World War II veterans from 1950 to 1990 using R. This research finds that White veterans have higher incomes than their Black counterparts at a statistically significant level when looking at an OLS regression of Total Personal Income on Year and Race. Additionally, the research studies the income differences between the 25th percentile, median, mean, and 75th percentiles of incomes of Black and White veterans, where Black veterans earned less than their White counterparts across all of these measures.
Url: https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/handle/1811/102972/4/THESIS_Arushi_Sharma.pdf
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Authors: Sharma, Arushi
Institution: The Ohio State University
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Pages: 1-29
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Aging and Retirement, Poverty and Welfare, Race and Ethnicity
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