The Distribution of Income in Ireland (2000) - Combat Poverty Agency

Chapter 3The Distribution of Income inIreland in the 1990sBrian Nolan and Bertrand Maitre3.1 INTRODUCTIONIn this chapter we look at the distribution of income among Irishhouseholds and persons in the 1990s. We use for this purposedata from the Living in Ireland Survey, which as we saw in thelast chapter was initiated in 1994. We have been able to analysein some depth income data from that first wave and from thefourth wave of the survey, carried out in 1997. Data from the1998 wave of the survey, coming on stream as this study wascompleted, allowed us to also include some initial results forthat year. This chapter concentrates on the broad pattern of incomedistribution and recent changes as revealed by thesesurveys. In the next chapter we make use of the 1987 ESRIhousehold survey and the CSO's Household Budget Surveys toassess trends from 1987 to 1994 and over a longer period backto 1973. 1We first look in Section 3.2 at the distribution of market,gross and disposable income among households in 1994 and1997, without any adjustment for differences in household sizeand composition. Section 3.3 then looks at the shape of the distributionwhen adjustment for such differences has been madeIn doing so we also compare the results of the Living in Ireland Survey 1994with the 1994/95 HBS; for this chapter we confine our attention here to theLiving in Ireland Surveys.