This paper provides an analysis of how the New Zealand tax system may be affecting residential property markets

This paper provides a basis for a broader understanding of the factors that shape financial wellbeing and the capacity of individuals to experience economic security.

Australian households have faced sharp increases in energy prices over the past decade. Household water bills have also increased. Higher numbers of households are experiencing electricity and/or gas disconnections due to non-payment of bills and joining energy retailer hardship programs to remain connected. As a...

Australia’s retirement income system has long implicitly taken it for granted that the vast majority of retired people will have very low housing costs – in turn reflecting a presumption that most of them will own their own homes, and will have fully paid down...

This background paper explains why families in Aotearoa New Zealand need a much more robust system of tax credit supports, as well as higher wages. New Zealand was once a model for other countries to follow in regard to its egalitarianism. Today, there is high...

This inquiry was established to assess issues related to home ownership in Australia, and potential policy responses by government. A range of views on the challenges facing home buyers today were canvassed throughout this inquiry. The core issues related to the housing market inevitably centre...

This paper is a collection of contributions from leading academics and social justice campaigners providing different perspectives on the ideas of shorter working hours and Universal Basic Income.

The public is constantly told income inequality is rising and the government should do something. This report seeks to explain why inequality matters, even though it has barely changed. It shows how income inequality did rise in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but has...

Successive treasurers have hailed Australia's long run of economic growth as a standout compared to the rest of the world. But if it's so good, how come many of us are feeling worse off? It could be because we're looking at the wrong measure of...

The effect of house prices on households’ financial decisions has been an important question facing researchers and policy-makers. Increases in house prices may lead households to take on additional debt, refinance an existing mortgage, or change the composition of the debt held. Studies of labour...

This report provides information on the material wellbeing of New Zealanders as indicated by their household incomes from all sources over the period 1982 to 2015. It updates the last report published in 2015 which covered 1982 to 2014. It is one of a suite...

The high cost of housing in Australia has been at the forefront of a range of recent policy debates concerning Australia’s taxation arrangements. This brief examines housing affordability in Australia for both owners and renters over recent decades. It focuses particularly on those households which...

This report uses non-income measures (NIMs) to examine material wellbeing of New Zealand households. NIMs focus on living conditions in terms of food, clothing, accommodation, heating, and transport, and in terms of their ability to maintain or replace broken household appliances, purchase desirable non-essentials, cope...

This report defines resilience as a process that enables individuals to bounce back after adverse events and experiences, adapt to changing circumstances, and deal with environmental stress'. The report defines financial resilience as the ability to access and draw on internal capabilities and appropriate, acceptable...

This article examines three taxes that have the potential to assist with addressing income inequality: estate taxes, gift taxes, and capital gains taxes. Reports on the historical background of these taxes to investigate why taxes that have the potential to act in a redistributive capacity...

The objective of the research presented in this report is to identify the nature and magnitude of the relationship between house prices, household debt and the labour market decisions of Australian households. It is well known that there is a positive relationship among house prices...

Tax reform is very much on the agenda, despite the PM backing away from a GST increase. Many experts point to the tax concessions enjoyed by wealthy Australians as a good place to start. Keri Phillips reports. In Australia, the federal government raises most of...

This paper argues that an estate tax would make a useful contribution to the government’s tax armoury. The aging of the population means that the tax base is likely to be expanding well into the future. In addition the estate duty is useful because it...

Financial inclusion is an important international policy goal. Remittances promote financial inclusion by contributing almost half a trillion dollars to the economies of developing countries each year and by giving people a strong reason to engage with formal financial services. In the Pacific, remittances represent...

Introduction Over the period 2002 to 2010, Statistics New Zealand carried out a longitudinal survey known as the Survey of Family, Income and Employment (SoFIE). Some eight waves of data were collected. Every second wave (2003/2004, 2005/2006, 2007/2008, and 2009/2010), respondents were asked questions about...