Who Are the Shareholders in Australia and What Are Their Ethical Opinions? An Empirical Analysis

Analysis of the 2003 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes verifies claims that Australia is a share-owning democracy. We show that higher income earners are most likely to own shares and to own shares in a large number of companies, and that the 45-54 and 54-56 year age groups are the peak for ownership. We also investigate ethical issues relating to share-ownership by examining scenarios under which owners would sell their shares. Copyright (c) 2006 The Authors; Journal compilation (c) 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.