The distribution of economic wellbeing is generally regarded as one of the key performance indicators of a society and economic wellbeing is strongly influenced by income, wealth and consumption. Despite this, almost all studies of inequality in Australia have relied upon income as the sole measure of economic wellbeing, due in large part to the ready availability of income data. This thesis attempts to redress that deficiency. This thesis provides an insight into an under-researched but vitally important topic � the distribution of wealth. Specifically the research has three goals. The first is to provide estimates of the level and distribution of wealth in Australia at the current time and the trends over the past decade or two. The second aim is to provide projections of the future wealth distribution. The final goal is to see if there are significant differences between the distribution of lifetime wealth and the annual cross-sectional distribution of wealth. The research uses a technique not previously used in Australia to estimate wealth in the future � dynamic microsimulation. The microsimulation model used is based on a starting sample of 150,000 individuals and this large number allows a large range of experiences to be modelled, while not having the high costs, years of commitment and other problems associated with undertaking panel studies. This thesis estimates that the average levels of wealth will increase significantly over the 40-year period from 2000 to 2040 but that wealth inequality will increase over the same period. The reasons for the increases in wealth inequality appear to be due to changes in asset ownership, particularly lower levels of home ownership; the ageing population; and increases in inequality within age cohorts. The research found that lifetime wealth inequality for a sub-group of Generation X differed from the distribution based on annual data. The lifetime wealth inequality was significantly less than the annual wealth inequality.

Innovations as a source of economic wellbeing and social prosperity has been well researched, albeit primarily done in the context of developed economies. However, of late, interest in the effect of innovation on economic performance and quality of life has been renewed as the world observes the rise of emerging economies, and at the same time, the prolonged recession in the more developed economies (i.e. North America and European countries). There has been a marked increase in the quantity and quality of research and development, spawn by innovative companies from emerging economies that are making their mark in global marketplace. These phenomena challenge the traditional concept that innovation flows from the resource rich developed countries to less developed countries, and that the latter are at a disadvantage in terms of knowledge, technology and competitiveness. Existing studies on national innovation highlight the relationships between innovative capability and its outcomes; however, few have tried to explain the determinants of a nation’s innovative capabilities. Using a sample of 95 countries and panel data analysis covering 28 years of observation, this study attempts to model the determinants of innovative capability at national level, and focuses on absorptive capacity and institutional framework as the main determinants of innovative capability. Further, this study identifies different aspects of absorptive capacity: creation and exploitation of innovation. Findings offer support on the importance of various sources of external knowledge in the creation of innovation, with FDI inflow and High Technology Export as the strongest sources. Corruption as institutional factor has negative effect on innovative capability, whereas openness shows no effect. National absorptive capacity moderates the effect of external knowledge on innovative capability, except on FDI outflow in which a negative effect on trademark application as a measure of innovative capability. The findings suggest that innovative capability and moderating role of absorptive capacity enhance economic wellbeing. Findings show that economic wellbeing increases happiness and income inequality (as the measures of quality of life); same thing as innovative capability, which also increases both happiness and income inequality. This study demonstrates that for happiness, higher education and better infrastructure (as the measure of foundational absorptive capacity) decrease the level of happiness. Higher education and ease access to information may increase expectation, which lead to unhappiness when the expectation is not met. For income inequality, negative effect of the moderating role of absorptive capacity means that higher education and better infrastructure contribute to lowering income inequality. Based on these findings, a nation should continue to attract FDI and trade in high technology because these sources of knowledge contribute to innovative capability. Policy makers can develop country positioning and country’s marketing activities by using the combination of the improvement of national factors and policy reforms. The upgrading of national factors helps to achieve higher economic wellbeing and quality of life in general.