Income, wealth and economic inequality in Australia

Economic well-being and economic inequality are usually quantified using income measurements of various sorts. Such analyses overlook the contribution of wealth – a potentially very significant factor. In this article, we integrate wealth and income data to provide a more comprehensive accounting of...

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Main Authors: Tapper, Alan, Fenna, Alan
Format: Journal Article
Published: Australian Social Policy Association 2018
Online Access:http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP140102571
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/71452
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author Tapper, Alan
Fenna, Alan
author_facet Tapper, Alan
Fenna, Alan
author_sort Tapper, Alan
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Economic well-being and economic inequality are usually quantified using income measurements of various sorts. Such analyses overlook the contribution of wealth – a potentially very significant factor. In this article, we integrate wealth and income data to provide a more comprehensive accounting of economic well-being and economic inequality in Australia. Using the Australian Bureau of Statistics Household Expenditure Survey microdata for 2009–2010, we present a cross-sectional analysis of wealth-adjusted income. We examine the relative contributions of income-and-wealth to wealth-adjusted income and compare the distribution of wealth-adjusted income to the distribution of income and the distribution of wealth. Wealth, we find, makes up between one-fifth and two-fifths of wealth-adjusted income; the incorporation of wealth increases the inequality already present in the income distribution (as measured using final incomes) by about 25 per cent.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-714522023-06-07T07:37:48Z Income, wealth and economic inequality in Australia Tapper, Alan Fenna, Alan Economic well-being and economic inequality are usually quantified using income measurements of various sorts. Such analyses overlook the contribution of wealth – a potentially very significant factor. In this article, we integrate wealth and income data to provide a more comprehensive accounting of economic well-being and economic inequality in Australia. Using the Australian Bureau of Statistics Household Expenditure Survey microdata for 2009–2010, we present a cross-sectional analysis of wealth-adjusted income. We examine the relative contributions of income-and-wealth to wealth-adjusted income and compare the distribution of wealth-adjusted income to the distribution of income and the distribution of wealth. Wealth, we find, makes up between one-fifth and two-fifths of wealth-adjusted income; the incorporation of wealth increases the inequality already present in the income distribution (as measured using final incomes) by about 25 per cent. 2018 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/71452 10.1002/ajs4.47 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP140102571 Australian Social Policy Association restricted
spellingShingle Tapper, Alan
Fenna, Alan
Income, wealth and economic inequality in Australia
title Income, wealth and economic inequality in Australia
title_full Income, wealth and economic inequality in Australia
title_fullStr Income, wealth and economic inequality in Australia
title_full_unstemmed Income, wealth and economic inequality in Australia
title_short Income, wealth and economic inequality in Australia
title_sort income, wealth and economic inequality in australia
url http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP140102571
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/71452