The focus of this report is on highlighting the economic impact of unpaid care - specifically, lost income during working life and the longer-term reduction in accruing superannuation, which affects retirement savings. In economic terms this is called the ‘opportunity cost of caring’.

This paper discusses the relative well-being of three generations: baby boomers, Generation X and millennials. Drawing on the OECD well-being framework, the paper examines income and wealth, housing, working conditions, health, education, environmental quality, social connections, safety and inequality.

This report looks at what is known about the UK government’s priorities for 'levelling up.' Based on the Plan for Growth, Boris Johnson’s levelling up speech in July, and the main policies announced so far, it is clear that levelling up is about more than...

This paper traces the emergence of a poorly understood social challenge and one which symbolises Britain’s broken ‘social settlement’ - the continued rise in working poverty since the beginning of this century.

This report is the second part of the research being conducted by the ACOSS and UNSW Poverty and Inequality in Australia Partnership. The research uses the latest available data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (for 2017-18), and digs deeper into understanding who stands where...

The COVID-19 virus, together with the ‘lockdowns’ instituted from March 2020 to prevent its spread, plunged the Australian economy into the deepest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. This Supplement outlines what the available data tells us about the impacts on employment and...

This report includes a preliminary analysis of the likely impact of COVID-19, the associated ‘lockdowns’, and government income support measures on income inequality.

It is important to understand how intergenerational equity is changing over time. The Australian Actuaries Intergenerational Equity Index (AAIEI) contributes to this discussion by tracking and assessing 24 indicators, across six broad domains, that relate to wealth and wellbeing (economic and fiscal, housing, health and...

This report provides an in-depth analysis of how income sources evolved between 2001 and 2018 for various age groups, and why. It shows the main driver behind lower incomes for young people is falling wage income.

This paper provides a summary of the impact of COVID-19 on labour market outcomes, income, financial stress, social cohesiveness, political attitudes, subjective wellbeing, and psychological distress.

In this report, the authors show how billionaire wealth has grown astoundingly over the last few decades — and, for some “pandemic profiteers,” even more dramatically since the COVID-19 crisis.

In this paper, the authors analyse the impact of adult education and training on labour market outcomes. Using the New Zealand Household Labour Force Survey linked to administrative education and earnings data, it is estimated that on average, studying for a tertiary qualification increases the...

This paper exploits the substantial and exogenously determined changes to electoral boundaries that occurred between the 1983 and 1984 elections in Australia. This context allows examination of whether political parties redistribute discretionary resources towards marginal districts, or to safe districts so as to ‘reward the...

This report summarises the findings from Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, which stands as a guide to inform our understanding of what’s shaping modern Australia.

This paper analyses the pattern of income support penalties applied to people participating in remote employment services from 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2018. Between 30 000 and 37 000 unemployed Australians were participating in these services at any given time during this period...

This quick guide provides information on sources available for Australian earnings data, drawing on data from the ABS and other sources.

In this policy note, and for the first time, levels of housing stress, poverty and income inequality have been modelled on the new Federal Electorate boundaries.

We’re doing better than many comparable countries, but that’s not enough, says Carmela Chivers.

This report highlights learning from basic income pilots underway or in planning in Finland, Ontario and the Netherlands, compiled from discussions with representatives at the Basic Income Earth Network 2018 World Congress.

This paper explores economic variables (household income, employment, qualification, financial hardship, risk and stress) and selected social variables (life satisfaction, psychological distress, alcohol intake and smoking) from multiple HILDA waves in respect to problem gambling risk.

How do households with low and uncertain incomes cope with risk and strive to make ends meet?

This brief paper summarises Western Australia's results of nation-wide polling exploring Australians’ attitudes to work, education, health, community and the economy. The full results are contained in the report Community pulse 2018: the economic disconnect. This New South Wales summary is a companion paper to...

The first step to Australia regaining momentum for broad-based economic reform is better understanding what the community really cares about. CEDA commissioned this research to understand Australian public perceptions of and attitudes to growth and economic development, and what they think the important issues are...

This discussion paper, released as part of the Inequality Roundtable, shows inequality is getting worse in Australia, with the income share of the top 10% growing at the expense of everyone else.

Access to fair wages has been facing a relative decline in the past few years, challenging social mobility and the egalitarian society that Australia has prided itself on being.