Battlers and Billionaires: The Updated Story of Inequality in Australia by Leigh, Andrew 2024
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Economic inequality is an important issue deserving of the considerable attention it now receives among applied economics researchers, reflecting the reality that the distribution of economic output is almost as important to community wellbeing as the total quantity of output.While many questions remain unanswered, there is now a substantial body of Australian research on the topic and a correspondingly improved understanding of the nature, causes and consequences of inequality in Australia.However, the translation of this body of knowledge to the general public was somewhat lacking until Leigh's 2013 book, Battlers and Billionaires (Leigh 2013), which provided an accessible overview of the evolution of inequality in Australia, its drivers and consequences, and proposals for ways to reduce it.It therefore provided a valuable resource for informing public discourse on this important subject.In Leigh (2024), the author provides an update to Leigh (2013).As would be expected of an "update," much of the material in this book is the same as in the original book.The main differences are the addition of more recent data and a few extra graphs, discussion of new research published since the first book was published, a few tweaks to the stories told and the way the material is explained, and the addition of two recommendations for "what is to be done."The general story and the key messages have not changed and therefore the book is probably targeted at people who have not read the first book.As with Leigh (2013), this is a highly enjoyable read, with Leigh complementing the well-researched empirical facts with engaging and often entertaining historical facts, stories and anecdotes.The book is written for a general audience, with technical details and sources consigned to endnotes.It succeeds in being accessible to non-experts, although I suspect much of it will nonetheless be somewhat heavy going for many readers.The book contains eight chapters, the first three of which describe the evolution of inequality in Australia from precolonization to the present day.Chapter 4 then examines the drivers of inequality, mainly focusing on recent decades.Chapter 5 discusses the consequences of inequality; Chapter 6 addresses the issue of intergenerational economic mobility and Chapter 7 discusses community attitudes to inequality.He concludes in Chapter 8 with a list of recommendations for addressing inequality. | The Evolution of InequalityIn broad terms, the story told in the first three chapters of the evolution of inequality in Australia is correct: inequality levels and trends pre-federation are uncertain, but inequality was probably very high over most of the nineteenth century.Inequality then decreased between federation and the 1970s, and then subsequently increased.The description of inequality trends is most balanced over the period to the early 1980s, when data availability is limited and the evidence is patchy.However, for the last 40 years, when considerably more data is available, which Leigh labels "The Great Divergence," he offers a somewhat selective coverage of inequality trends, ignoring the many nuances and deviations from the "inequality is ever rising" narrative that he prosecutes for this period.While there is little doubt that inequality today is higher than in the early 1980s, much of the increase occurred in the 1980s and 1990s.The changes that have occurred this century are more mixed and complicated.On some metrics, such as top
Source: Australian Economic Review
Author: Roger Wilkins
Institution: The University of Melbourne
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,900
Funder: University of Melbourne
OpenAlex ID: W4407140995