Rising Top-Income Persistence in Australia: Evidence from Income Tax Data

Arbeitspapier

We use a new Australian longitudinal income tax dataset, Alife, covering 1991–2017, to examine levels and trends in the persistence in top-income group membership, focussing on the top 1%. We summarize persistence in multiple ways, documenting levels and trends in rates of remaining in top-income groups; re-entry to the top; the income changes associated with top-income transitions; and we also compare top-income persistence rates for annual and 'permanent' incomes. Regardless of the perspective taken, top-income persistence increased markedly over the period, with most of the increase occurring in the mid-2000s and early 2010s. In the mid- to late-2010s, Australian top-income persistence rates appear to have been near the top of the range of tax-data estimates for other countries. Using univariate breakdowns and multivariate regression, we show that the rise in top-income persistence in Australia was experienced by many population subgroups.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 14737

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions ; General Welfare; Well-Being ; Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
• Subject: top incomes ; income mobility ; top-income persistence

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Herault, Nicolas ; Hyslop, Dean ; Jenkins, Stephen P. ; Wilkins, Roger
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2021

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/245788
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET