The Growing Gap Between Rich and Poor in Australia

Peter Saunders (), Bruce Bradbury and Melissa Wong
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Peter Saunders: University of New South Wales
Melissa Wong: University of New South Wales, Sydney

Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), 2016, vol. 19, issue 1, 15-32

Abstract: Economic inequality has emerged as a policy issue as recent academic studies have documented the extent of change and raised questions about its underlying causes and economic and social impacts. This paper examines the levels of income and wealth inequality and recent changes using data from the Survey of Income and Housing (SIH) conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Attention focuses on where different groups fit in the overall income distribution - how specific assets (particularly owner-occupied housing) affect the distribution of wealth within and between different generations, the joint distribution of income and wealth and how both distributions have changed in recent years. The observed changes cover the period before and after the 2008 financial crisis and have occurred against a background of increases in real income and real net wealth, although the gains have been greater for those at the top of both distributions than for those at the bottom.

Keywords: Economic inequality; income distribution; distribution of net wealth; recent trends (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D30 D31 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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