Stochastic Dominance Analysis of Australian Income Distributions

We apply stochastic dominance tests to investigate trends in inequality in Australia over the period 1983 to 1998. Results show significant levels of inequalities in the income and expenditure distributions for the population as a whole as well as within population groups. We further find that the impact of the government’s tax and transfer redistribution scheme varied greatly among the different demographic groups. After tax and transfers are made, significant gains in welfare levels were observed for migrant and single-parents households compared to their non-migrant and couple-parent counterparts respectively. In contrast, welfare levels of male-headed households continue to dominate those of female households post tax and that there is limited government capacity for closing the existing gap in incomes and expenditures among households without