| This research addresses differences between Latino and White families in the ownership and allocation of four traditional measures of financial security; transaction accounts, stock, housing, and life insurance. Using data from the 2001 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, this research first estimates a two-stage interaction model to examine differences in the asset ownership and asset allocation decisions. Results indicate that the negative effects of Latino ethnic identity on ownership are the result of the disadvantaged position of Latino families in the distribution of other financial and demographic characteristics and not the impact of Latino ethnic identity itself. Once ownership and non-random self-selection into ownership are taken into consideration, there is no difference in the holdings of stock, home equity, or life insurance allocation between Latino and White families. Results indicate that socio-financial resources defined as having community support, and living in a multi-family household, are both compensatorily and complementarily related to financial asset ownership, depending on the type of asset and specific socio-financial resource. |
