Fenaba R. Addo
Research Fellow
Fenaba Rena Addo, Ph.D., is an associate professor of public policy at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her research program examines the causes and consequences of debt and wealth inequality with a focus on higher education and family and relationships.
Her work on racial disparities in student debt, older Black women and wealth, and the millennial wealth gap has been widely published in academic journals and policy outlets. Addo’s research sheds light on ways that societal inequalities stem from historical legacies of racial exclusion and discrimination and how they get reproduced over time. It also highlights systemic barriers that Black Americans face in attaining economic security for their families.
Addo received her Ph.D. in policy analysis and management from Cornell University and holds a Bachelor of Science in economics from Duke University. She also was named a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation health and society postdoctoral scholar.
- The Generational Wealth Gap: Facing the Future but Falling Further Behind (PDF)
with Reid Cramer, The Future of Building Wealth, Sept. 30, 2021 - Disparate recoveries: Wealth, race, and the working class after the Great Recession
with William A. Darity, Jr., The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, August 2021 - A Subaltern Middle Class: The Case of the Missing “Black Bourgeoisie”
with William A. Darity, Jr. and Imari Z. Smith, Contemporary Economic Policy, May 2020 - The Changing Nature of the Association Between Student Loan Debt and Marital Formation in Young Adulthood
With Jason N. Houle and Sharon Sassler, Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 2018 - Racial Disparities in Student Loan Debt and the Reproduction of the Fragile Black Middle Class
with Jason N. Houle, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 2018 - As Fewer Young Adults Wed, Married Couples’ Wealth Surpasses Others’
with Lowell R. Ricketts, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis In the Balance, December 2018 - Parents’ Wealth Helps Explain Racial Disparities in Student Loan Debt
St. Louis Fed In the Balance, Issue 19, 2018 - Born Without a Silver Spoon: Race, Wealth, and Unintended Childbearing
with Jessica Houston Su, Journal of Family and Economic Issues, May 2018 - “Seeking Relief? Bankruptcy and Health Outcomes of Adult Women”
Social Science & Medicine: Population Health, December 2017 - Young, Black, and (Still) in the Red: Parental Wealth, Race, and Student Loan Debt
with Jason N. Houle and Daniel Simon, Race and Social Problems, March 2016 - Debt, Cohabitation, and Marriage in Young Adulthood
Demography, September 2014 - Marriage, Marital History, and Black-White Wealth Differentials among Older Women
with Daniel Lichter, Journal of Marriage and Family, March 2013
