RDP 2005-10: Housing and the Household Wealth Portfolio: The Role of Location Appendix A: Data Description and Sources

In this study we use data from Wave 2 of the HILDA Survey. HILDA is a household-based panel survey which aims to track members of a sample of households over an indefinite life. Its main focus is on topics of economic and subjective well-being, labour market dynamics, and family dynamics. HILDA is conducted by the Melbourne Insitute on behalf of the Department of Family and Community Services.

Wave 2 contains data from 13,041 individuals making up 7,245 households, interviewed in the second half of 2002 and into early 2003. Our main interest in Wave 2 is in the special wealth module, which provides, for the first time, household-level data on the composition of wealth of households. For this study we use the imputed income and wealth data.^[21]

Dependent variables

(home value/assets) = home value as a share of household total assets.

(total property value/assets) = total property value as a share of household total assets.

Demographic variables

age = age of the household head in years.

gender = 1 if the household head is male and 0 if otherwise.

married = 1 if the household head is married and 0 if otherwise.

divorced = 1 if the household head is divorced and 0 if otherwise.

separated = 1 if the household head is separated and 0 if otherwise.

widowed = 1 if the household head is widowed and 0 if otherwise.

de facto = 1 if the household head is in a de facto relationship and 0 if otherwise.

single person = 1 if the household head lives alone and 0 if otherwise.

couple with children = 1 if the household type is a couple with children and 0 if otherwise.

dependent = 1 if the household type is a dependent and 0 if otherwise.

couple with no children = 1 if the household type is a couple with no children and 0 if otherwise.

single parent = 1 if the household type is a single parent and 0 if otherwise.

lives alone = 1 if the household type is a person living alone and 0 if otherwise.

Occupation variables

The occupation variables are of the household head's main job and are in accordance with the 1997 Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ABS Cat No 1220.0).

manager = 1 if the household head is a manager and 0 if otherwise.

professional = 1 if the household head is a professional and 0 if otherwise.

associate professional = 1 if the household head is an associate professional and 0 if otherwise.

tradesperson = 1 if the household head is a tradesperson and 0 if otherwise.

advanced clerical = 1 if the household head is an advanced clerical worker and 0 if otherwise.

intermediate clerical = 1 if the household head is an intermediate clerical worker and 0 if otherwise.

intermediate production worker = 1 if the household head is an intermediate production worker and 0 if otherwise.

elementary clerical = 1 if the household head is an elementary clerical worker and 0 if otherwise.

labourer = 1 if the household head is a labourer and 0 if otherwise.

not working = 1 if the household head is not working and 0 if otherwise.

The labour force status variables are of the household head's main job and are in accordance with the 2001 Labour Statistics, Concepts, Sources and Methods (ABS Cat No 6102.0).

full-time employed = 1 if the household head works full-time and 0 if otherwise.

part-time employed = 1 if the household head works part-time and 0 if otherwise.

not working = 1 if the household head is unemployed, marginally attached to the labour force or not marginally attached to the labour force, and 0 if otherwise.

Economic variables

household income = household financial year final income

net wealth = household total assets less household total liabilities.

earns rental income = 1 if someone in the household receives rental income and 0 if otherwise.

Urbanisation dummy variables

Definition: The urbanisation dummy variables are constructed by first identifying Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth Statistical Divisions to give capital cities. The balance of the States are divided into other major cities and rural areas according to their scores for the ARIA.

Source: Australian Standard Geographical Classification ABS Cat No 1216.0; 2001 Census ABS Cat No 1216.0. Also refer to variables BHHMSR and BHHRA in the HILDA Survey.

ARIA

Definition: The Department of Health and Aged Care's Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia. ARIA scores range between 0 (capital cities) and 15 (Australia's most remote locations) for each 1996 SLA, based on the SLA's proximity to service centres of 5 different sizes.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics' Integrated Regional Database; Australian Standard Geographical Classification ABS Cat No 1216.0 (1996).

Population density

Definition: Persons per square kilometre.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics' Integrated Regional Database; 2001 Census; Australian Standard Geographical Classification ABS Cat No 1216.0 (2001).

Footnote

For further details on the income and wealth imputation, refer to Watson (2004). [21]