Intergenerational Mobility in Australia: National and Regional estimates Using Administrative Data

Abstract

We produce the first estimates of intergenerational mobility in Australia using tax data covering over a million individuals born between 1978 and 1982. We find that the  intergenerational elasticity in total income is 0.185, and that the rank-rank slope is 0.215. These are among the lowest estimates for advanced economies. We show that there is both substantial upward mobility from the bottom of the income distribution and substantial downward mobility from the top. We also produce the first regional estimates of intergenerational mobility for Australia. While mobility is rapid throughout most of the country there is meaningful dispersion − with the mining boom in particular driving strong upward mobility over the period observed.

About the presenter’s visit

Nathan Deutscher will be visiting the School of Economics on Wednesday 7^th August 2019.  While here he will be using room 520A Colin Clark Building.  If you would like to meet with him or have lunch or dinner with him please contact Dr Satoshi Tanaka who will be his host while at The University of Queensland.  Dr Tanaka can be contacted on s.tanaka@uq.edu.au.