More Pensioners, Less Income Inequality? The Impact of Changing Age Composition on Inequality in Big Cities and Elsewhere

Abstract

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International Migration and the Distribution of Income in New Zealand Metropolitan and Non-Metropolitan Areas

“…Our earlier work (Alimi et al, 2016(Alimi et al, , 2017) signalled a strong increase in income inequality between 1986 and 2013, which is consistent with much of the earlier literature. However, we see in Table 4.1 that the trends differ across locations (metropolitan versus non-metropolitan) and migration status.…”

“…This share then increases to 7% by 1996 and remains constant thereafter until 2013. Betweenmigration group inequality calculated here is higher than the between-age group inequality reported by Alimi et al (2017), indicating bigger differences (at least in average income) across migrant groups than age groups. Spatially, between-group inequality is lower in non-metropolitan areas than in metropolitan areas.…”

“…Mean is relative mean income calculated as group-mean income divided by overall mean income for that area 3) Real mean is in 2013 dollars 4) All counts have been rounded to base 3 as per Statistics New Zealand policy for unit record data Notes: Results are the by-group MLD, by-group real (2013 $) mean income, relative mean income and population share of New Zealand-born and immigrant groups in metropolitan, non-metropolitan, and all urban areas combined It is important to reiterate that the target population in this analysis is the population aged 25 to 64 years earning positive income in each Census period between 1986 and 2013. Nonetheless, Table4.1 shows that the overall intercensal changes in inequality are in the same direction as those for the total urban population 15+ reported inAlimi et al (2017), which have been reproduced in the immigrants represented about 25% of the total population under consideration but by 2013 this had increased to about 35%. Spatially, immigrants are a bigger 25 MLD calculations for the whole urban population aged 15+ earning positive incomes are reported inAlimi et al (2017) -see for example Table2inAlimi et al (2017).…”

“…Nonetheless, Table4.1 shows that the overall intercensal changes in inequality are in the same direction as those for the total urban population 15+ reported inAlimi et al (2017), which have been reproduced in the immigrants represented about 25% of the total population under consideration but by 2013 this had increased to about 35%. Spatially, immigrants are a bigger 25 MLD calculations for the whole urban population aged 15+ earning positive incomes are reported inAlimi et al (2017) -see for example Table2inAlimi et al (2017).…”

“…Changes in inequality are decomposed using the population decomposition by sub-group approach of Mookherjee and Shorrocks (1982), and the regression-based decomposition approach. The method of Mookherjee and Shorrocks (1982) is described in Alimi, Maré and Poot (2017) but we provide a brief recap here.…”