Poverty in Australia since the financial crisis

The role of housing costs, income growth and unemployment

Bibliographic Data

ID12937848
AuthorsPeter Saunders (0000-0003-1368-1696, UNSW Sydney, corresponding author), Melissa Wong (0000-0002-3040-2954, UNSW Sydney), Bruce Bradbury (0000-0002-0718-1399, UNSW Sydney)
Year2016
Volume24
Issue2
Pages97-112
Publication date2016-06-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Poverty and Social Justice (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1759-8273 • E-ISSN: 1759-8281
PublisherPolicy Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1332/175982716x14650295704614
OpenAlexW2506591638
LanguageEN
Citations received6

This paper examines recent trends in poverty in Australia and shows how sensitive the estimates are to the poverty line and the treatment of housing costs and recent data changes. Relative poverty increased modestly between 2003–04 and 2011–12 both before and after housing costs, although it has declined since the financial crisis and there has been a marked decline in absolute poverty. The simulated impact of a $50 a week increase in unemployment benefit on the poverty rate is relatively small because the payment gap is now over $90 a week, although the impact on the poverty gap is larger

Demographic economics · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Extreme poverty · Financial crisis · Labour economics · Macroeconomics · Poverty · Poverty rate · Unemployment · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Social Issues and Policies