Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis paper summarises the available evidence on the present‐day distribution of wealth in Australia, and draws comparison with international evidence. With this as background, I argue that an initiative to collect more up‐to‐date information on Australia's wealth distribution would be most useful if it focused on the least wealthy 90 to 95 per cent of the population, even though this group probably owns not more than half the nation's wealth.

International trade and investment have flourished globally but nowhere so spectacularly as in the Asia-Pacific region. This volume brings together some of the most eminent economists in the field to analyse this vital region from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. The volume focuses especially on trade policy and welfare, game theory analysis of trade policy and the linkages between trade policy and endogenous growth.

AbstractThis article focuses on the challenges facing superannuation, the income replacement pillar of Australia's retirement income system, as it matures. We discuss four questions: In an era when households are making critical and complex choices that most have never previously confronted, how should policy‐makers and private providers guide choices? How should superannuation be taxed? How should the drawdown phase be structured? And to what extent will the Superannuation Guarantee be able to meet the objective of providing retirement income to substitute or supplement the age pension? This article attempts to provide perspective on each of the issues and concludes with a statement of research need.

AbstractAustralia's retirement income provision system, comprising the 'three pillars' of a means‐tested aged pension, mandatory occupational superannuation and other, voluntary long‐term savings, is at the heart of understanding the fiscal implications of ageing. While the Intergenerational Report, an account of long‐term fiscal sustainability, is celebrating its tenth birthday since the first edition was published, the Superannuation Guarantee, first implemented in 1992, turns a sprightly 20 years old. This article considers the Intergenerational Report as a prism for studying fiscal, demographic and policy developments in the Australian retirement income system over the last decade and into the future.

Straightforward geometry can be used to explain the role for life annuities in smoothing individual consumption during retirement. In the aggregate, there is a surprising analogy with a standard diagram from trade theory. That diagram takes careful account of the government revenues forgone when there is a move from tariffs to free trade. Here we find a similar geometric interpretation of the proceeds from deceased estates which need to be accounted for when comparing a no‐annuities economy with its annuitized counterpart. By the same token, there are considerable gains from opening up a market for life annuities, even after deceased estates are taken into account.