The Growing Gap Between Rich and Poor in Australia

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.