Measuring Positional Changes within the New Zealand Income Distribution: Evidence from Administrative Data

Abstract

This paper use administrative, longitudinal data on the New Zealand taxpayer population to examine the nature and extent of positional changes within the income distribution by individuals. It uses recently developed devices for illustrating re-ranking over time, for periods of 1 to 15 years, during 2002 to 2017. The results, for a range of population groups, highlight the fact that there is a high degree of re-ranking by individuals within the income distribution. After 15 years, re-ranking of individuals' incomes represent around 30 to 45 per cent of the maximum re-ranking possible.