Global Restructuring,the Welfare State and Urban Programmes: Federal Policies and Inequality within Australian Cities

This paper is a prelude to a theme issue in 2003 on Australasian city and regional problems and policies. It considers the impact of economic restructuring on the level of inequality and disadvantage within Australian cities. Evidence is presented that Australian cities have become more unequal over the past two decades and this greater level of inequality has found concrete expression within the built environment. These patterns of inequality are distinct to Australia. It is argued that the Australian Government's reliance on tightly targeted income support policies and market-based solutions to economic disadvantage has contributed greatly to the concentration of low income and vulnerable households within certain sections of Australian cities.     

Metropolitan Income Inequality During the 1980s: The Impact of Urban Development, Industrial Mix, and Family Structure

The empirical analysis in this paper explores the interurban variation in family income distribution. The results point to increasing urban development, rising female-headship, a widening educational distribution, and changes in the industrial and occupational mix as major contributing factors to rising inequality. However, the increase in the relative number of multiple worker families was a significant mitigating force to rising inequality. A decomposition of 1979 and 1989 cross-sectional models revealed that while changes in urban family and industrial characteristics have been sources of rising inequality, there has been significant structural change in the urban models acting to decrease inequality.