The costs associated with an ageing population in Australia are putting increasing pressure on the fiscal resources of the government. This pressure will intensify as the proportion of elderly doubles over the next few decades. Under this increasing fiscal pressure, the government will be increasingly looking to individuals to provide for themselves.

It is generally accepted that there are significant regional differences in income distribution in Australia. This paper examines the extent of these differences in the working population and in retirement. Differences in income distributions are analysed according to state or territory, remoteness and age. The results show that in the 65 years and over group...

The prospect of the baby boomers reaching retirement in the near future is an economic concern for most OECD countries. The future costs of their pension schemes and the escalating health care costs are coming on top of already stretched budgets. In Australia, a three-pillar system (the three pillars being the Age Pension, compulsory and...

The growing differences in the resources available to older Australians raises many questions for policy makers, as they grapple with the issues associated with population ageing and how to finance the future health and care needs of the ageing baby boomers. In this paper Ann Harding, Anthony King and Simon Kelly review the trends.

Simon Kelly, Ann Harding and Richard Percival use microsimulation to make projections of the superannuation assets of people entering retirement over the next 40 years. They consider the impact of a change in superannuation policy -- namely, a higher level of compulsory contribution -- from both the individual and government perspective.