THE DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL WEALTH IN ITALY: 1991-2002 (original) (raw)

The effects of social security on the distribution of wealth in Italy

2005

The degree of substitutability between social security wealth and private wealth is a much-debated topic; however, less time and energy has been devoted to the study of the distributive properties of a measure of wealth summing future pension benefits net of contributions to the other traditional components of households' net worth (financial and real activities, net of liabilities). The present paper has two essential aims: by using six cross-sections of the firstly aims to estimate an "augmented" measure of net worth incorporating social security wealth, and secondly it examines the composition and distribution of such augmented wealth among Italian households during the period 1991-2002. The result is that augmented wealth is found to have remained constant in real term over the last decade due to two opposing forces, namely an increase in net worth and a parallel, stronger decline in social security wealth, resulting from the two main pension reforms implemented in 1992 and 1995. Wealth inequality, after rising steeply at the beginning of the 1990s, levelled off during the second part of the period in question. The major contribution towards this upwards movement came from social security wealth, the distribution of which, although less unequal than that of real wealth and financial wealth, widened at a much faster pace at the beginning of the decade.

Household Wealth Distribution in Italy in the 1990s

2004

This paper describes the composition and distribution of household wealth in Italy. First, the evolution of household portfolios over the last 40 years is described on the basis of newly reconstructed aggregate balance sheets. Second, the characteristics and quality of the main statistical source on wealth distribution, the Bank of Italy's Survey of Household Income and Wealth, are examined together with the statistical procedures used to adjust for nonresponse, nonreporting and underreporting. The distribution of household net worth is then studied using both adjusted and unadjusted data. Wealth inequality is found to have risen steadily during the 1990s. The increased concentration of financial wealth was an important factor in determining this path.

The dynamics of household wealth accumulation in Italy

2000

Abstract We examine the dynamics of wealth accumulation distribution in Italy using data drawn from the Survey of Household Income and Wealth, a representative survey of the Italian population conducted by the Bank of Italy. We compare survey data with National Accounts data and discuss sample representativeness, attrition and measurement issues.

Wealth and Its Returns: Economic Inequality in Italy, 1995-2014

2015

This paper describes the dynamic of economic inequality in Italy in the last two decades by focusing on a composite measure that combines both income and wealth. The trend of inequality could be altered by the errors that inevitability affect sample surveys (non-response and measurement errors). This paper tries to assess the impact of those issues on the measurement of inequality, with a special attention to capital incomes which are particularly difficult to measure in sample surveys. Results with adjusted data highlight a higher level of inequality in all considered periods for both wealth and income. Yet, adjusted data show dynamics that are fairly in line with those observed in the original data. There is evidence that inequality in capital income is decreasing over time.

Inequality Amid Income Stagnation: Italy Over the Last Quarter of a Century

SSRN Electronic Journal

The paper analyses the evolution of inequality in Italy from 1989 to 2014, focusing on three business-cycle phases: the 1992 currency crisis, the moderate growth from 1993 to 2007, and the double-dip recession from 2008 to 2013. Data from the national accounts and the Bank of Italy's Survey on Household Income and Wealth are used. Results show that income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, rose sharply during the recession of the early 1990s but much less during the recent double-dip recession, though the share of people at risk of poverty rose similarly during the two crises. The stability of (synthetic) distributive inequality measures is explained by the fact that the reduction in income during the double-dip recession hit the whole population. Despite this apparent stability, two changes stand out: the widening gap between the young and the elderly and the fact that the deterioration in living conditions was borne wholly by households whose primary earner was foreign born.

The Evolution of Income Composition Inequality in Italy, 1989–2016

Review of Income and Wealth

We study the evolution of inequality in income composition in terms of capital and labor income in Italy between 1989 and 2016. We document a rise in the share of capital income accruing to the bottom of the distribution, while the top of the distribution increases its share of labor income. This implies a falling degree of income composition inequality in the period considered and a weaker relationship between the functional and personal distribution of income in Italy. This result is robust to various specifications of self-employment income; nonetheless, it hinges crucially on the treatment of rental incomes. While the dynamics of imputed rents has brought about a more equitable distribution of capital incomes across the income distribution, that of actual rents has led to higher concentration of capital incomes at the top in the decade preceding the outbreak of the financial crisis. Finally, we conceptualize a rule of thumb for policy makers seeking to reduce income inequality in the long run.

The turn of the screw : changes in income distribution in Italy (2002-2010)

2014

This article uses data from the 2002-2010 waves of Bank of Italy Survey on Households Income and Wealth. It reports data on the evolution of the distribution of income by main households’ income sources and by households’ income rank and on the evolution of concentration indexes by the same characters. The decompositions of Theil and Gini indexes are used to assess if the changes in overall concentration are mainly driven by a deeping of inequality between groups or by increases of within groups concentration and of overlapping among groups distributions.