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The Correlation of Wealth between Parents and Children in Australia

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  • Siminski, Peter

    (University of Technology, Sydney)

  • Yu, Sin Hung

    (University of Sydney)

Abstract

We present the first estimates of intergenerational wealth correlation for Australia, using HILDA. The rank correlation varies greatly by child age when wealth is observed, from 0.1 before age 30, to 0.5 after age 40. Most children in our estimation sample are young. For these children overall, the estimate is 0.253. Our comparable estimate for the USA is 0.306. Wealth correlations are difficult to interpret and not well grounded in theory. We therefore also implement Boserup et al.'s (2017) framework to estimate the intergenerational correlation of lifetime resources, but conclude that HILDA is not yet mature enough for this task.

Suggested Citation

  • Siminski, Peter & Yu, Sin Hung, 2021. "The Correlation of Wealth between Parents and Children in Australia," IZA Discussion Papers 14784, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14784
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    Cited by:

    1. Peter Levell & David Sturrock, 2023. "Using Understanding Society to study intergenerational wealth mobility in the UK," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(4), pages 417-432, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    wealth mobility; intergenerational mobility; Australia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • H00 - Public Economics - - General - - - General

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