[go: up one dir, main page]

  EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

The concentration of personal wealth in Italy 1995-2016

Paolo Acciari, Facundo Alvaredo () and Salvatore Morelli

World Inequality Lab Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: Italy is one the countries with the highest wealth-to-income ratio in the developed world. Yet, despite the growing policy interest, knowledge about the size distribution of wealth is currently limited. In this paper we expand our windows of observation on the distribution of personal wealth using a novel source on the full record of inheritance tax files. The data cover up to 63% of the deceased population and are available between 1995 and 2016, a period of substantial economic turbulence and structural reform for the Italian economy. Our benchmark results rely on the distribution of the net wealth observed in the National Accounts balance sheets. Unlike available statistics estimated from household survey data, our results point to a strong rise in wealth concentration and inequality since the mid-1990s. Whereas the level of wealth concentration in Italy is in line with those of other European countries, its time trend appears more in line with the U.S. experience. Moreover, Italy stands out as one of the countries with the strongest decline in the wealth share of the bottom 50% of the adult population. We explore the role of household wealth portfolios, accumulation patterns during the life cycle, and inheritance flows, its concentration, and taxation patterns as main drivers of the trends observed. A range of alternative series of wealth concentration helps us better understand the role of adjustments and imputations and is based on a multi-series approach, i.e., comparing the pieces of information given by different and competing sources.

Keywords: Wealth inequality; Wealth distribution; Top wealth shares; Distributional national accounts; Estate concentration; Inheritance and gifts; Inheritance tax (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-05
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03226113v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03226113v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Concentration of Personal Wealth in Italy 1995–2016 (2024) Downloads
Working Paper: The concentration of personal wealth in Italy 1995-2016 (2024) Downloads
Working Paper: The concentration of personal wealth in Italy 1995-2016 (2024)
Working Paper: The concentration of personal wealth in Italy 1995-2016 (2024)
Working Paper: The concentration of personal wealth in Italy 1995–2016 (2023) Downloads
Working Paper: The Concentration of Personal Wealth in Italy 1995-2016 (2023) Downloads
Working Paper: The concentration of personal wealth un Italy 1995 - 2016 (2021) Downloads
Working Paper: The concentration of personal wealth in Italy 1995-2016 (2021) Downloads
Working Paper: The concentration of personal wealth in Italy 1995-2016 (2021) Downloads
Working Paper: The concentration of personal wealth in Italy 1995-2016 (2021) Downloads
Working Paper: The Concentration of Personal Wealth in Italy 1995–2016 (2021) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wilwps:halshs-03226113

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in World Inequality Lab Working Papers from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Caroline Bauer ().

 
Page updated 2024-12-23
Handle: RePEc:hal:wilwps:halshs-03226113