In recent years, researchers have used taxation statistics to estimate the share of total income held by the richest groups, such as the top 10% or the top 1%. Compiling a standardised top income shares dataset for thirteen developed countries, I find that there is a strong and significant...

This paper analyses the role of the elderly couples’ past marital history in determining their current wealth holdings and portfolio allocation using data from the first wave of the Health and Retirement Study. The results suggest that, for those who remarry after divorce, there is recovery...

Societies typically have three objectives for work and welfare: sustained income/economic growth per capita, employment growth (and job security?), a just distribution of income along with access to certain basic services. There may be tensions between these objectives. This paper tries to...

The problem introduced by grouping income data when measuring socioeconomic inequalities in health (and health care) has been highlighted in a recent study. We reexamine this issue and show there is a tendency to underestimate the concentration index at an increasing rate when lowering the...

Using the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Survey of Income and Household Costs, this paper explores the effect of changing assortative mating patterns on income inequality. Evidence from theoretical and mathematically calibrated models suggest that assortative mating has distributional...

Using taxation statistics, we estimate the income share held by top income groups in Australia over the period 1921-2002. We find that the income share of the richest fell from the 1920s until the mid-1940s, rose briefly in the post-war decade, and then declined until the early-1980s. During the...

There is some concern that immigration contributes to a larger current account deficit in a net borrowing country like Australia. The reason is believed to be that the immigrants on balance have a lower net saving than those born in the country.

This paper seeks to evaluate the findings of cross-national research on the relationship between income inequality and democracy and to assess the prospects of future research in the area.

There are many dimensions along which changing labour market income could be explored. The author chooses to direct attention to the changes that are occuring among males of different ages. The changes in Australia are very large. Changes of a similar magnitude are occuring in the UK and...

Prior to the last three decades, regular surveys on household income were rare or non-existent in many developed countries, making it difficult for economists to develop long-run series on income distribution. Using taxation statistics, which tend to be available over a longer time span, I...