Giovanni D'Alessio

Household Wealth Distribution in Italy in the 1990s

This paper describes the composition and distribution of household wealth in Italy. First, the evolution of household portfolios over the last forty 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 Italyi?½s Survey of Household Income and Wealth, are examined together with the statistical procedures used to adjust for non-response, non-reporting and under-reporting. 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.

La distribuzione del reddito e della ricchezza nelle regioni italiane

Information from the Survey of Italian Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) is not normally used as a basis for regional estimates on account of the small sample size. This paper presents an experimental estimation of regional aggregates for the period 1995-2000, obtained by combining several surveys. The variability of estimates is reduced not only by means of a wider sample but also through estimators that limit the impact of extreme values and merge survey data with external sources. The results confirm the traditional scenario: northern and central regions show greater average values for both income and wealth than their southern counterparts. Concentration of the two variables appears greater in the South, less in the North and even less in the Centre: therefore if measured with the Sen welfare index, which simultaneously considers average equivalent income and a distributional index, the gap between southern regions and northern and central ones grows even larger. The difference in the social and demographic composition of the population explains a significant share of the disparity in mean incomes between regions and helps to shed light on inequality within regions as well; the effects vary according to the region and the variable. However, these features appear to influence nation-wide inequality only to a moderate degree.

Measurement Error in the Bank of Italy's Survey of Household Income and Wealth

This paper is aimed at evaluating the incidence of measurement error in the Bank of Italys Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW). In the case of time-invariant variables, we assess the degree of inconsistency of answers given by panel households in subsequent survey waves. For quantities that vary with time, we estimate the incidence of measurement error by decomposing observed variability into true dynamics and error-induced noise. We apply the Heise model or the latent Markov model, depending on whether the data are continuous or categorical. We also present regression models that explain the error-generating process. Our results are relevant to researchers who use SHIW data for economic analysis, but also to data producers involved in similar income and wealth surveys. The methods we describe and test can be employed in a number of contexts to gain better understanding of data-related problems and plans for survey improvement.

Household Over-Indebtedness: Definition and Measurement with Italian Data

The last decade has seen significant increases in consumer indebtedness in western countries, causing concern about its economic and social impact. In particular, over-indebtedness is attracting attention from national and international authorities because of its potential effect on both the sustainability of householdsi?½ indebtedness and the stability of the financial system. From a social point of view, the excessive accumulation of debts accompanied by householdsi?½ liquidity constraints causes a deterioration in householdsi?½ social and economic well-being, thus leading in the long term to social exclusion and poverty. The aim of this paper is to present and analyze the main measures of over-indebtedness used in the literature. In particular, the paper uses data from the Italian Survey of Household Income and Wealth to extend the existing knowledge about the possible ways of measuring economic difficulty and over-indebtedness. The traditional and the new measures of over-indebtedness are subsequently compared with the measures of poverty in order to disentangle the relationship between the two phenomena.

Intergenerational Transfers in Italy

In this paper we examine the role of intergenerational transfers in the wealth accumulation of Italian households. Received transfers represent an important share of the net wealth held by households. Direct estimates referring to 2002 range from 30 to 55 per cent, depending on the inclusion of the income stream produced by transferred assets. This share has shown a tendency to increase over the last decade. In a lifetime perspective, the ratio of transfers received over the whole life span to the total amount of resources, both computed at the age of 15, is on average equal to 4.6 per cent, a significant share considering the size of the denominator. Transfers are very concentrated, more than income and wealth, even when considered in a lifetime perspective. Households receiving transfers show higher levels of lifetime income, consumption, net wealth and given transfers than non-recipient households. Richer households receive larger transfers but, as a proportion of their current wealth holdings, transfers are greater for poorer households than richer ones. These results cannot be interpreted as an equalising effect of transfers, because people tend to react to transfers, changing their saving and consumption behaviour. The correlation between transfers (received or expected over the whole life span) and lifetime income is positive. Again, richer households receive greater inheritances and other wealth transfers than poorer households; as a proportion of their lifetime income, transfers are greater for poorer households than richer ones. This result is likely to be due to the much more important role played by family background variables than bequests as factors of transmission of inequality of lifetime resources. Finally, we find a positive relationship between left-to-children bequests and received-from-parents inheritances; this relationship holds even after controlling for lifetime resources, suggesting the importance of the role of family traditions.

Values, Inequality and Happiness

This paper examines the relationship between inequality and happiness through the lens of heterogeneous values, beliefs and inclinations. Drawing upon opinion data from the European Social Survey for twenty-three countries, we find that individual views on a wide range of themes can be effectively summarized by two orthogonal dimensions: moderation and inclusiveness. The former is defined as a tendency to take mild stands on issues rather than extreme ones; the latter is defined as the degree of support for a social model that grants equal rights to everyone who willingly subscribes to a shared set of rules, regardless of background and circumstances. These traits matter when it comes to how inequality affects subjective well-being; specifically, those who are either more moderate or more inclusive than their average compatriots prefer lower levels of inequality. In the case of moderation, inequality aversion can be read in terms of a desire for stability: people who are reluctant to take strong stands are especially wary of conflict, tension and unrest, which often go handin-hand with disparities. In the case of inclusiveness, the main element at play is likely to be distress accruing on a perception of unfairness.

Income and wealth sample estimates consistent with macro aggregates: some experiments

The Bank of Italyi?½s Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) is widely used to study the economic behavior of Italian households. Like most similar surveys, the SHIW is biased downward in its estimates by the lesser propensity of wealthy families to participate and by the tendency to underreport income and wealth. This work assesses the various techniques for correct the bias, applying them to the period 1995-2012. Calibration techniques, which produce estimates consistent with the macro-economic information available from other sources, are also employed.

Oltre il Pil: come cambiano le condizioni delle famiglie italiane?

Oltre il Pil: come cambiano le condizioni delle famiglie italiane? Il lavoro illustra l’evoluzione dei principali indicatori di benessere economico e di disuguaglianza in Italia dal secondo dopoguerra, mostrando che i progressi non sono stati uniformi nel tempo e tra le categorie di cittadini; fornisce inoltre alcuni spunti di riflessione sulla adeguatezza del Prodotto interno lordo come indicatore di benessere. Si argomenta che le risorse economiche contano in misura significativa nell’influenzare le condizioni di benessere, riconoscendo tuttavia l’importanza di estendere l’analisi anche ad altre dimensioni, come le misure soggettive di benessere e quelle di disuguaglianza.

Over-Indebtedness in Italy: How Widespread and Persistent Is It?

The purpose of this paper is to examine the measures of over-indebtedness proposed in the literature and to apply them to the Italian case from 2008 to 2014 by using the wide array of information available from the Bank of Italy’s survey on households. The numerous measures of over-indebtedness are critically analysed from both a cross-sectional and a historical perspective. The panel also enables us to analyse the transition into and out of over-indebtedness. Moreover, by using the Eurosystem’s Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), we can compare the over-indebtedness of Italian households with that of other euro-area countries. The paper also addresses the issue of the measurement errors that could bias both the level of over-indebtedness and estimates of the transition into and out of it.

Measurement errors in consumption surveys and the estimation of poverty and inequality indices

This paper firstly aims to evaluate the incidence of measurement error affecting the main variables collected in surveys on consumption. The assessment is carried out on two Tanzania surveys which provide both diary and panel data. Diary data can be employed to obtain reliability coefficients for time-invariant variables. When variables vary over time, as in the case of panel data, an estimation of the incidence of measurement error on the total variance can be obtained by applying models which allow the decomposition of observed variability into true dynamics and noise (e.g. the Heise model and the latent Markov model). Some evaluations of the reliability of the data are also conducted on the basis of the internal consistency criterion, an approach that does not require panel data. On the basis of the reliability estimates obtained, examples of possible impacts of measurement errors on poverty analysis are briefly discussed. These experiments clearly show the importance of the topic in poverty and inequality data analysis.