Growth
Uneven growth across groups over time
Published figure result: higher growth at the bottom and top of the distribution, with stagnation in the middle.
Empirical resources
Statistics and data resources
The lab's empirical work depends on administrative records, household surveys, macroeconomic aggregates, and official reference databases relevant to Australian fiscal policy.
Data strategy
Empirical inputs for quantitative public finance
The goal of this page is to clarify the evidence base behind the lab's modelling and empirical analysis.
Research in macro public finance depends on combining detailed household-level information with broader macroeconomic and institutional data. The lab uses these sources to discipline structural models, document heterogeneity, and evaluate policy counterfactuals.
Some sources are public and easy to access, while others involve formal data arrangements through the relevant institutions. This page therefore functions as a data map rather than a repository.
Administrative records
Used to study earnings, taxes, transfer interactions, and long-run distributional patterns.
Household surveys
Used to capture demographic, labour-market, and lifecycle variation not visible in aggregate statistics alone.
Official macro data
Used for calibration, benchmarking, and the interpretation of fiscal aggregates and broader economic trends.
Public statistics archive
Statistics from ATO tax records
Inequality
Rising trend in income inequality
Published figure result: the Gini rises over time, and the P90/P50 ratio shows a widening gap between the top and the middle.
Redistribution
More progressive tax and slightly smaller transfers
Published figure result: the personal income tax system becomes more redistributive, while the redistributive index for transfers declines slightly over the period.
Transfer design
Means-tested transfers remain highly progressive
Published figure result: the transfer system is very progressive, but the average size of transfers declines slightly over the sample period.
Key datasets
Core data sources used in the research program
These are the main empirical inputs named in the current site materials.
Administrative data
ATO tax records
Longitudinal administrative information on earnings, taxes paid, and related variables used to study distributional dynamics and fiscal design.
Household panel
HILDA Survey
The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey provides rich longitudinal information on labour, demographics, and household behaviour.
Macro aggregates
ABS national accounts
Australian Bureau of Statistics data are used for macroeconomic calibration, benchmarking, and the interpretation of aggregate fiscal outcomes.
Health data
Medicare and PBS records
Health expenditure and claims information supports the lab's work on insurance design, medical spending, and health-related inequality.
Retirement data
ASFA superannuation statistics
These sources help inform work on retirement savings, superannuation balances, and pension-system analysis.
International reference
OECD tax database
Comparative international statistics support cross-country benchmarking and broader discussion of fiscal-system design.
Empirical domains
The kinds of statistics the lab works with
Rather than freezing potentially dated point estimates into the page, this section highlights the empirical dimensions central to the lab's work.
Fiscal system
Taxes, transfers, and effective marginal rates
The lab studies how statutory policy interacts with withdrawal rules and household circumstances to shape incentives and redistribution.
Retirement system
Pensions, superannuation, and ageing
Research tracks retirement savings, pension design, and the long-run fiscal implications of population ageing.
Distribution
Earnings, wealth, and inequality
Distributional outcomes are studied across the lifecycle, across families, and across generations using microdata and structural models.
Health and insurance
Health spending and economic security
The lab also examines the relation between health shocks, insurance design, savings behaviour, and wealth inequality.
Need a more detailed data inventory?
The redesigned page now gives a cleaner overview of empirical sources. If you want, the next step can be a more technical data catalogue organised by project or research theme.