The Structure and Distribution of Household Wealth

This project is being conducted as part of a larger research program titled, The Dynamics of Economic and Social Change: An Analysis of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey.

It uses the data on household wealth collected as part of the second wave of the HILDA Survey data to provide an overview of the structure and distribution of household wealth in Australia, providing estimates of the mean and median levels of household wealth by type of asset or debt, and estimates of the degree of inequality of wealth holdings. The data confirm that wealth is very unequally distributed, with the bottom half of the distribution owning less than 10 per cent of total household net worth (assets less debts), while the wealthiest 10 per cent account for 45 per cent of total net worth. The paper also includes an analysis of the factors associated with household wealth that indicates that wealth is significantly related to a range of factors including age, country of birth, parental occupational status, education, marital status, working hours, income, self-reported savings behaviour, a willingness to take risks and even various lifestyle behaviours, such as smoking and alcohol consumption

The project has given rise to the following publications:

One working paper has also been produced and can be downloaded from the link below.

Working Paper No. 12/2004 The Structure and Distribution of Household Wealth in Australia, by Bruce Headey, Gary Marks and Mark Wooden PDF format (173K)

The contact for this project is Professor Mark Wooden