Inter-Decile Income Movements of Individuals in New Zealand: Evidence from Administrative Data

Abstract

This paper provides an empirical description of the income mobility of individual incomes in New Zealand over the period 2002 to 2017, using information from transition matrices. These capture movements of individual taxpayers between deciles of the income distribution over periods ranging from one to fifteen years. Transitions for sample decompositions by age, gender, ethnicity and education level are also explored. Though 1-year transitions indicate considerable inertia or stability, a relatively high degree of movement between deciles is observed across most of the distribution over longer periods. Different age, gender, ethnicity and educational qualification decompositions reveal remarkably similar patterns of inter-decile movement.