1504.0 - Methodological News, Dec 2001  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 15/11/2001   
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EXPERIMENTAL HOUSEHOLD-LEVEL WEALTH DATA FOR AUSTRALIA

Information on the composition, accumulation and distribution of wealth between households has been in increasing demand among analysts and policy makers in recent decades. Since the mid 1990's, the ABS has produced a household balance sheet as part of the Australian System of National Accounts. The household balance sheet dissects the aggregate wealth of households and unincorporated enterprises into a number of asset and liability classes. In addition, several Australian studies have been undertaken to estimate particular components of household wealth using a variety of methods and data sources. Notwithstanding these developments, information on wealth at the household level remains somewhat limited.

In 2000, Analysis Branch began work to build a dataset which would expand the scope of previous work by:

  • extending the number of asset and liability categories modelled to more closely reflect the structure of the household balance sheet, and incorporate additional detail in some areas;
  • compiling data which can be dissected by different statistical unit types (households, income units), a range of household types (based on the composition of the household and ages of the people within it), and a range of other characteristics such as State and income level;
  • generating estimates for components of wealth which have not been included in previous studies, such as consumer durables; and
  • generating estimates of wealth across time.

The Survey of Income and Housing Costs and the Household Expenditure Survey are being used as the main data sources for the estimates. A large number of other data sources are also being used, including the Rental Investors Survey, the Business Longitudinal Survey, and the Survey of Employment Arrangements and Superannuation.

There are a variety of methods used to estimate the different components of aggregate wealth. These include:
  • the use of directly reported survey data on asset and liability values;
  • grafting asset and liability values from one data source to another using the maximum level of information available,
  • distributing aggregate asset values in proportion to income; and
  • modelling asset or liability values based on income unit characteristics.

Adjustments are made to the aggregate figures in the household balance sheet, to account for differences in the scope and coverage between the household sector in the National Accounts and household surveys. The survey based estimates are then benchmarked to the household balance sheet, to ensure consistency between the two estimates at the aggregate level.

Work on compiling estimates for the years 1993-94 to 1999-00 is almost complete. The results of this study will be released to the public in early to mid 2002. In the longer term, the estimation methods developed may be used to compile wealth estimates on an ongoing basis. There are a number of relevant agencies who would find this data highly valuable as an input to analysis, forecasting or revenue estimation.

The project team is Kristen Northwood, Terry Rawnsley and Lujuan Chen.

For more information, please contact Kristen Northwood on (02) 6252 5854.

Email: kristen.northwood@abs.gov.au.