This study provides evidence on optimal commodity tax rates in Australia, and on their sensitivity to demand function and demographic specification. The optimal tax algorithm, proposed and used here, allows the social welfare weights to depend on prices, household composition and aggregate...

This paper examines inequality in Australia using four Household Expenditure Surveys (HES) between 1975/76 and 1993/94, from the Australian Burau of Statistics (ABS). The effects on inequality of the choice of welfare variable, equivalence scale and price index are examined.

This paper compares, using Australian unit record data, income and expenditure inequalities over the period 1975/76 to 1993/94. The study finds inconsistencies between the two inequality movements over much of this period. We, also, observe differences in the nature of income and consumption...