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Comparing the Implications of Expanded Income-Based Measures of Living Standards with an Application to Older Australians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2018

YUVISTHI NAIDOO Open the ORCID record for YUVISTHI NAIDOO [Opens in a new window]
YUVISTHI NAIDOO*
Affiliation:
Social Policy Research Centre, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia email: ynaidoo@unsw.edu.au
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Abstract

The standard of living of older people is a critical policy matter, given Australia's ageing population. Conventional living standard assessments continue to rely on disposable income as a defining indicator, despite it not encompassing the full range of potential consumption possibilities that affect an individual's economic living standard. This article proposes a series of three economic resource metrics that sequentially append the disposable income metric with the value of non-cash benefits and services arising from the receipt of public goods and/or services from home ownership in the form of a ‘full’ income metric, and then the inclusion of wealth in the form of two derived ‘potential consumption’ metrics. Using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, the findings demonstrate that augmenting disposable income with income streams from non-cash services and annuitised wealth substantially improves the relative economic position of older Australians. It also highlights the heterogeneity in economic living standard outcomes for different demographic sub-groups of older people that would otherwise be drawn using a disposable income analytic lens. The article argues that an expanded economic resource perspective is necessary for informing ageing and social policy.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , January 2019 , pp. 83 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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