Poverty, inequality and social welfare are defined in this book. Previous poverty studies are surveyed and a new index of poverty is developed based on everyday meanings, and stressing the individual and relative nature of poverty. Previous definitions of inequality and welfare are described and...

This paper examines income and expenditure distributions over recent decades using unit record data from Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) income and expenditure surveys. The results show that there was a significant increase in private income inequality over the 1980s and 1990s. However,...