IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iae/iaewps/wp2007n12.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Changing Socio-Demographic Composition of Poverty in Australia: 1982 to 2004

Author

Listed:
  • Roger Wilkins

    (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne)

Abstract

The extent of income poverty and its socio-demographic composition are examined using all ABS income surveys conducted over the period 1982 to 2004. There has been some increase in the proportion of the population in poverty, particularly since 1997, but of more note are the substantial changes in the socio-demographic composition of those in poverty. Compared with the start of the sample period, persons in poverty at the end of the period were much more likely to be older, in families without dependent children, holding post-school qualifications and/or foreign-born. In part, these changes reflect broader changes in the composition of the population. However, changes in the risks of poverty associated with different characteristics have also produced large changes in the composition of the poor, and have in some cases counteracted or reversed effects of demographic change. Specifically, the risk of poverty has increased for the elderly, non-dependent youth, single people, foreign-born persons and those without post-school qualifications, and it has decreased for sole parent families and residents of Queensland, the ACT and the Northern Territory.

Suggested Citation

  • Roger Wilkins, 2007. "The Changing Socio-Demographic Composition of Poverty in Australia: 1982 to 2004," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2007n12, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    • Handle: RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/downloads/working_paper_series/wp2007n12.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Johnson, 1996. "Poverty Lines and the Measurement of Poverty," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 29(1), pages 110-126, January.
    2. repec:bla:revinw:v:43:y:1997:i:3:p:319-33 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Peter Saunders & Bruce Bradbury, 2006. "Monitoring Trends in Poverty and Income Distribution: Data, Methodology and Measurement," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 82(258), pages 341-364, September.
    4. Klaas de Vos & M. Asghar Zaidi, 1997. "Equivalence Scale Sensitivity Of Poverty Statistics For The Member States Of The European Community," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 43(3), pages 319-333, September.
    5. Peter Siminski & Peter Saunders & Bruce Bradbury, 2003. "Reviewing the Intertemporal Consistency of ABS Household Income Data through Comparisons with External Aggregates," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 36(3), pages 333-349, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francisco Azpitarte, 2014. "Was Pro-Poor Economic Growth in Australia for the Income-Poor? And for the Multidimensionally-Poor?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(3), pages 871-905, July.
    2. Francisco Azpitarte & Olga Alonso-Villar & Felipe Hugo-Rojas, 2019. "On the Changing Spatial Distribution of Human Capital and Occupation Groups: An Analysis of Recent Trends in Australia’s Main Capital Cities," Working Papers 1903, Universidade de Vigo, Departamento de Economía Aplicada.
    3. Peter Saunders & Yuvisthi Naidoo, 2018. "Mapping the Australian Poverty Profile: A Multidimensional Deprivation Approach," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 51(3), pages 336-350, September.
    4. Joan R. Rodgers & Peter Siminski & James Bishop, 2009. "Changes in Poverty Rates during the Howard Era," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 42(3), pages 300-320, September.
    5. Francisco Azpitarte, 2012. "Was Economic Growth in Australia Good for the Income-Poor? and for the Multidimensionally-Poor?," Working Papers 278, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    6. Peter Saunders, 2018. "Monitoring and addressing global poverty: A new approach and implications for Australia," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 29(1), pages 9-23, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rodgers, J.R., 2007. "Statistically Significant Changes in the Poverty-Rate, 1997-98 to 2002-03," Economics Working Papers wp07-06, School of Economics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
    2. Boyd H. Hunter & Steven Kennedy & Nicholas Biddle, 2004. "Indigenous and Other Australian Poverty: Revisiting the Importance of Equivalence Scales," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 80(251), pages 411-422, December.
    3. Joan R. Rodgers & Peter Siminski & James Bishop, 2009. "Changes in Poverty Rates during the Howard Era," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 42(3), pages 300-320, September.
    4. Deborah J Schofield & Michelle Cunich & Rupendra N Shrestha & Emily J Callander & Megan E Passey & Simon J Kelly & Robert Tanton & Lennert Veerman, 2014. "The Impact of Diabetes on the Labour Force Participation and Income Poverty of Workers Aged 45–64 Years in Australia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(2), pages 1-7, February.
    5. Eike Berner & Laura Birg & Dominik Boddin, 2017. "Retailers and Consumers: The Pass-through of Import Price Changes," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(7), pages 1314-1344, July.
    6. Bellemare, C. & Melenberg, B. & van Soest, A.H.O., 2002. "Semi-parametric Models for Satisfaction with Income," Discussion Paper 2002-87, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    7. de Ree, Joppe & Alessie, Rob & Pradhan, Menno, 2013. "The price and utility dependence of equivalence scales: Evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 272-281.
    8. Vroegrijk, Mark & Gijsbrechts, Els & Campo, Katia, 2016. "Battling for the Household's Category Buck: Can Economy Private Labels Defend Supermarkets Against the Hard-Discounter Threat?," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 92(3), pages 300-318.
    9. Anh Thu Quang Pham & Pundarik Mukhopadhaya, 2022. "Multidimensionl Poverty and The Role of Social Capital in Poverty Alleviation Among Ethnic Groups in Rural Vietnam: A Multilevel Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 281-317, January.
    10. Angela Daley & Thesia Garner & Shelley Phipps & Eva Sierminska, 2020. "Differences across countries and time in household expenditure patterns: implications for the estimation of equivalence scales," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(6), pages 734-757, November.
    11. Regan, Mark & Kakoulidou, Theano, 2022. "How important are the unit of analysis and equivalence scales when measuring income poverty and inequality? Evidence from Ireland," Papers WP721, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    12. Luca Zanin, 2017. "The effects of various motives to save money on the propensity of Italian households to allocate an unexpected inheritance towards consumption," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 1755-1775, July.
    13. Núñez Velázquez, José Javier, 2009. "Estado actual y nuevas aproximaciones a la medición de la pobreza/Current Status and New Approaches to the Measurement of Poverty," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 27, pages 325-346, Agosto.
    14. Boyd H. Hunter & Steven Kennedy & Daniel Smith, 2003. "Household Composition, Equivalence Scales and the Reliability of Income Distributions: Some Evidence for Indigenous and Other Australians," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 79(244), pages 70-83, March.
    15. Roger Wilkins, 2021. "Economic Wellbeing," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 54(4), pages 469-481, December.
    16. Silvia Mendolia & Peter Siminski, 2016. "New Estimates of Intergenerational Mobility in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 92(298), pages 361-373, September.
    17. Hielke Buddelmeyer & Sher Verick, 2008. "Understanding the Drivers of Poverty Dynamics in Australian Households," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 84(266), pages 310-321, September.
    18. Ismael Ahamdanech-Zarco & John A. Bishop & Andrew Grodner & Haiyong Liu, 2011. "Subjective poverty equivalence scales for Euro Zone countries," Working Papers 233, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    19. Francisco Azpitarte, 2012. "Was Economic Growth in Australia Good for the Income-Poor? and for the Multidimensionally-Poor?," Working Papers 278, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    20. Joan R. Rodgers, 2012. "Living Arrangements and Income Poverty," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 15(3), pages 217-234.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sheri Carnegie (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mimelau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.