Comments on: Rising inequality in good and bad times?

By: Bruce W Bradbury

Bruce W Bradbury — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 04:47:04 +0000

I doubt very much that the British petrol expenditure pattern will apply to Australia. Here, the poor are much more likely to have significant petrol expenditures. Shame the ABS only publishes their demographically disaggregated indices once a year.

By: derrida derider

derrida derider — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:48:25 +0000

I don’t know of any work that’s recent enough to capture the recent downturn – the ABS figures will be the most recent available and they go up to June 2008. Over the financial year 2007-08 the general CPI did in fact rise faster than the “age pensioner” and “self funded” retiree CPIs.

There will be as-yet unpublished work on this done as part of the Harmer Review of pensions as it’s in the ToR. This Review has been completed but not yet released by the government.

By: Daily Femmostroppo Reader - March 17, 2009 — Hoyden About Town

Daily Femmostroppo Reader - March 17, 2009 — Hoyden About Town — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:00:21 +0000

[...] Rising inequality in good and bad times? [...]

By: Fred Argy

Fred Argy — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 04:53:04 +0000

DD, thanks for sending me the ABS statistics. I’m not surprised that the CPI for Australian poor has grown at much the same rate as the general CPI. The distribution of incomes in nominal and real terms has been pretty stable for some thirty years.

However, the Institute of Fiscal Studies points to big discrepancies in the spending patterns of rich and poor households over the last 12 months (to January this year). It claims that rich households have experienced much more substantial declines in mortgage interest rates and petrol bills (in proportional terms). It also shows that poor households spend more on other goods.

Do you know if there has been a recent study of the experience of our rich and poor people on the recent big cuts in mortgage rates and falling petrol bills over the last month? Australian pensioners spend more on rents, food prices, domestic energy costs and public transport and are relative scarce users of petrol and mortgage rates. You may be correct that it does not make much difference but do you happen to know?

By: derrida derider

derrida derider — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 02:16:28 +0000

This has been pretty extensively researched in Australia. The short answer is that the Britsh results do not transfer to Australia - the CPI for the poor has grown at pretty much the same rate over the past thirty years as the general CPI. For ABS work on this, try here.