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Measuring Top Incomes Using Tax Record Data: A Cautionary Tale from Australia

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  • Richard V. Burkhauser

    (Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University; and Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne)

  • Markus H. Hahn

    (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne)

  • Roger Wilkins

    (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne)

Abstract

Atkinson, Piketty, and Saez (2011) survey an important new literature using income taxbased data to measure the share of income held by top income groups. But changes in tax legislation that expand the tax base to include income sources (e.g. capital gains, dividends, etc.) disproportionately held by these groups will conflate such an expansion with an increase in the share of income they hold. We provide a cautionary tale from Australia of how comprehensive tax reform legislation in 1985 substantially altered Australian top income series, especially those that do not separate taxable realized capital gains from other taxable income.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard V. Burkhauser & Markus H. Hahn & Roger Wilkins, 2013. "Measuring Top Incomes Using Tax Record Data: A Cautionary Tale from Australia," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2013n24, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    • Handle: RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2013n24
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Diego Winkelried & Bruno Escobar, 2022. "Declining inequality in Latin America? Robustness checks for Peru," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 20(1), pages 223-243, March.
    2. Enrico Rubolino & Daniel Waldenström, 2020. "Tax progressivity and top incomes evidence from tax reforms," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 18(3), pages 261-289, September.
    3. Garry Barrett, 2018. "The labor market in Australia, 2000–2016," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-11, July.
    4. Richard Burkhauser & Markus Hahn & Roger Wilkins, 2015. "Measuring top incomes using tax record data: a cautionary tale from Australia," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 13(2), pages 181-205, June.
    5. Kopczuk, Wojciech & Alstadsæter, Annette & Jacob, Martin & Telle, Kjetil, 2016. "Accounting for Business Income in Measuring Top Income Shares: Integrated Accrual Approach Using Individual and Firm Data from," CEPR Discussion Papers 11671, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Terhi Ravaska, 2018. "Top incomes and income dynamics from a gender perspective: Evidence from Finland 1995-2012," Working Papers 469, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    7. Richard V. Burkhauser & Markus H. Hahn & Roger Wilkins, 2018. "Transitioning from an Historical to a Contemporary Use of Tax Record Data for Measuring Top Incomes in Australia," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 37(2), pages 113-145, June.
    8. Nicolas Hérault & Dean Hyslop & Stephen P. Jenkins & Roger Wilkins, 2024. "Rising top‐income persistence in Australia: Evidence from income tax data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 70(1), pages 154-186, March.
    9. Raymundo M. Campos-Vazquez & Emmanuel Chavez & Gerardo Esquivel, 2017. "Growth is (really) good for the (really) rich," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(12), pages 2639-2675, December.
    10. Annette Alstadsæter & Martin Jacob & Wojciech Kopczuk & Kjetil Telle, 2016. "Accounting for Business Income in Measuring Top Income Shares: Integrated Accrual Approach Using Individual and Firm Data from Norway," NBER Working Papers 22888, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Andrew Leigh & Adam Triggs, 2016. "Markets, Monopolies and Moguls: The Relationship between Inequality and Competition," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 49(4), pages 389-412, December.
    12. Maxim Pinkovskiy & Xavier Sala-i-Martin & Kasey Chatterji-Len & William Nober, 2024. "Inequality Within Countries is Falling: Underreporting-Robust Estimates of World Poverty, Inequality and the Global Distribution of Income," LIS Working papers 880, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    13. Ravaska Terhi, 2018. "Top incomes and income dynamics from a gender perspective : Evidence from Finland 1995-2012," Working Papers 1822, Tampere University, Faculty of Management and Business, Economics.
    14. Advani, Arun & Summers, Andy & Tarrant, Hannah, 2022. "Measuring top income shares in the UK," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 610, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    15. David Gunawan & William E. Griffiths & Duangkamon Chotikapanich, 2021. "Posterior Probabilities for Lorenz and Stochastic Dominance of Australian Income Distributions," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 97(319), pages 504-524, December.
    16. Wojciech Kopczuk & Eric Zwick, 2020. "Business Incomes at the Top," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(4), pages 27-51, Fall.
    17. Kennedy, Tom & Smyth, Russell & Valadkhani, Abbas & Chen, George, 2017. "Does income inequality hinder economic growth? New evidence using Australian taxation statistics," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 119-128.
    18. Richard V. Burkhauser & Markus H. Hahn & Roger Wilkins, 2016. "Top Incomes and Inequality in Australia: Reconciling Recent Estimates from Household Survey and Tax Return Data," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2016n19, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    19. Terhi Ravaska, 2018. "Top incomes and income dynamics from a gender perspective: Evidence from Finland 1995–2012," Working Papers 321, Työn ja talouden tutkimus LABORE, The Labour Institute for Economic Research LABORE.
    20. Advani, Arun & Summers, Andy & Tarrant, Hannah, 2020. "Measuring UK top incomes," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 490, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    21. Kasey Chatterji-Len & William Nober & Maxim L. Pinkovskiy & Xavier X. Sala-i-Martin, 2024. "Inequality Within Countries is Falling: Underreporting Robust Estimates of World Poverty, Inequality, and the Global Distribution of Income," Staff Reports 1125, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    22. Salvatore Morelli & Timothy Smeeding & Jeffrey Thompson, 2014. "Post-1970 Trends in Within-Country Inequality and Poverty: Rich and Middle Income Countries," CSEF Working Papers 356, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    23. Mark Westcott & John Murray, 2017. "Financialisation and inequality in Australia," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 28(4), pages 519-537, December.
    24. Atanu Ghoshray & Issam Malki & Javier Ordóñez, 2020. "Trends, Breaks and Persistence in Top Income Shares," Working Papers 2020/12, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Top incomes; income inequality; personal income; tax-based data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D3 - Microeconomics - - Distribution
    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue

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