Nicolas Hérault, Melbourne Institute - Distributional National Accounts for Australia, 1991-2018

Title: Distributional National Accounts for Australia, 1991-2018

Abstract: We produce estimates of the distribution of the National Accounts measure of national income in Australia for the period 1991 to 2018 by combining household survey data and tax records data, and adjusting individual incomes so as to sum to national accounts aggregates. We document the shifts in income shares over the period, contrasting changes in the distribution of pre-tax and post-tax national income. We exploit the extra richness of survey data to shed further light on the distribution of national income across and within various population groups not usually identifiable in the tax data on which Distributional National Accounts are generally based. We then compare Australia to the US and France. Finally, we compare our new inequality estimates with traditional household survey based estimates.

Presenter: Nicolas Hérault, Melbourne Institute

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