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Measuring Income Inequality in Australia
Author(s) -
Wilkins Roger
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
australian economic review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-8462
pISSN - 0004-9018
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8462.12098
Subject(s) - inequality , strengths and weaknesses , economic inequality , income inequality metrics , economics , data source , income distribution , econometrics , demographic economics , computer science , mathematics , psychology , database , social psychology , mathematical analysis
This article surveys the Australian data sources suited to the study of income inequality. Strengths and weaknesses of the data sources are discussed and a brief overview of inequality trends is presented. While there are several suitable data sources, each source has limitations for the purposes of ascertaining both the level of inequality at a point in time and trends in inequality over time. Drawing together the collective findings of the alternative data sources in part addresses the limitations of individual data sources, but there nonetheless remain significant sources of uncertainty about inequality levels and trends in Australia.