Wealth Inequality in Australia: Sources and Solutions
About
Wealth inequality is increasing in Australia (Productivity Commission 2018). Key to this development is rising property prices and the growing importance of housing assets in wealth portfolios (Daley and Wood 2014; Commonwealth of Australia 2020). House prices in many capital cities have risen significantly faster than wages over recent decades. For example, between 2012 and 2019, house prices increased by over 55% in Sydney and Melbourne (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2019a). Over the same period real wages in Australia grew by only 18.4% (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2019b). These trends accelerated during the COVID period (Konings et al 2021) and in this context, intergenerational transfers (the ‘bank of mum and dad’) are increasingly shaping young adults’ access to home ownership. A number of economists have identified the growing significance of housing and other financial assets in contributing to inequality (Piketty 2014; Atkinson 2015; Wolff 2017). Nonetheless we do not yet fully understand the broader economic, social, and political causes and consequences of this shift. This project will produce significant new insights into the role of assets, especially housing wealth, in shaping inequality and social stratification across generations.
This project asks four research questions:
- How have policy decisions contributed to increasing levels of asset-based wealth inequality in Australia?
- What role are intergenerational wealth transfers playing in the concentration of asset ownership and the shaping of life opportunities?
- How has the asset economy impacted on social stratification?
- What policy options are available to mitigate the problems associated with asset inflation and growing wealth inequality in Australia?
Research Team
Professor Lisa Adkins
Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences – The University of Sydney
Lisa’s interventions in the discipline of Sociology lie in the areas of economic sociology, social theory and feminist theory. Currently, she is working on questions of asset ownership and social inequality, with a particular focus on the restructuring of lifetimes in the asset economy. This team-based research is supported by the Australian Research Council and by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI). Her most recent books are The Time of Money (2018, Stanford University Press) and The Asset Economy (2020, Polity Press) co-authored with Martijn Konings and Melinda Cooper. With Gareth Bryant and Martijn Konings, Lisa is currently directing a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Strategic Research Theme on Asset Ownership and the New Inequality. Lisa is also joint editor-in-chief of the journal Australian Feminist Studies(Routledge/Taylor&Francis).
Professor Martijn Konings
Political Economy – The University of Sydney
Martijn research interests are at the intersection of political economy and social theory. He has published books on the historical development of American finance; the psychological dimensions of money and capitalism; neoliberalism; risk and speculation in financial governance; and the contemporary asset economy. His current research is on the way logics of asset ownership are transforming contemporary capitalism, which is linked to his SOAR fellowship “Towards a democracy of asset-owners?”, the FASS Strategic Research Theme “Asset ownership and the new inequality” (which he co-direct with Lisa Adkins and Gareth Bryant), the ARC-funded project “Inequality in Australia: Housing in the asset society” (with Lisa Adkins and Dallas Rogers), the AHURI-funded project “Pathways to home ownership in an age of uncertainty” (with Laurence Troy, Lisa Adkins, Gareth Bryant, Caitlin Buckle), as well as his 2021-2022 Berggruen USC fellowship. He is Editor-in-Chief of Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, and with Stefan Eich he edits a series,Currencies: New Thinking for Financial Times, published by Stanford University Press.
Professor Stephen Whelan
Economics
Stephen’s main areas of interest are social policy and their impact on labour market outcomes. Presently, Stephen is examining the effect of housing assistance measures on labour market behaviour in Australia with the support of a grant from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. Collaborative research with Anu Rammohan is considering the effect of child care assistance on the employment decisions of women and their implications for retirement income.
Professor Dan Woodman
Sociology – The University of Melbourne
Dan’s primary research area is the sociology of youth, young adulthood, and generations and he uses this focus to also contribute to the sociology of work, and to sociological theory. His writing conceptualizing generational change and the new social conditions impacting on young adults is internationally recognized. Dan is the current President of the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and Immediate Past President of The Australian Sociological Association (TASA). He was also the founding convener of the Sociology of Youth Thematic Group within TASA. He is also Vice President for Australia, New Zealand and Oceania of the Research Committee on the Sociology of Youth (RC34) within the International Sociological Association (ISA). He is co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Youth Studies and on the Boards of the Journal of Sociology, Health Sociology Review, Journal of Applied Youth Studies and Youth and Globalization. He is the Founding Chair of Social Sciences Week, Australia and Chair of the Local Organising Committee for the upcoming 20th World Congress of Sociology, Melbourne 2022. His current research activity is focused on the Life-Patterns Project (he is a Chief Investigator with colleagues in the Graduate School of Education). Life Patterns is a 30-year and ongoing longitudinal study following approximately 1000 Australians from the end of secondary school into middle age. In particular he has been investigating the biographical consequences of young people’s work and study patterns.