A Policy Platform to Deliver Black Reparations: Building on Evidence from Child Development Accounts

Successful Black reparations require a policy for delivering payments, one that provides for effective identification, disbursement, asset protection, and asset growth over time. In this article, the authors suggest a structural solution (structured wealth accumulation of reparations payments) to a structural challenge (deeply embedded racial wealth inequality). Analyzing evidence from a longitudinal experiment, they find that Child Development Accounts (CDAs)—a carefully designed and tested asset-building policy for children—provide a model that can inform effective delivery and sustainable growth of reparations. CDA policy models a system of potentially lifelong, centralized asset building, with automatic enrollment, sensible investment options, structured asset protections, low fees, asset growth, and investment targets to achieve individual and family goals. Policy and research implications for Black reparations and reduction in racial wealth inequality are discussed.

This study was published within a double special issue of RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. For a summary of the study’s key points, see the companion brief.

Project: SEED for Oklahoma  Kids (SEED OK)