This paper proposes a conceptual framework that makes it possible to investigate the effects of central bank independence, the degree of centralization of wage bargaining and the interaction between those institutional variables on the real wage, unemployment and inflation. This is done by...

The paper describes first the evolution in total household wealth in Italy over the period 1965-2010 before addressing the analysis of wealth inequality. On the basis of reconstructed data, we show that household wealth inequality declined until the beginning of the 1990s. It then grew...

In a choice model of risky assets the role of risk aversion is analyzed. The measure of risk preference comes from a direct subjective survey question and it is considered as an imperfect information about the true risk attitude of investors. Misclassification between the true and the observed...

The paper proposes a measure of countries' welfare based on individuals' lifetime utility and applies it to a large sample of countries in the period 1960-2000. Even though welfare inequality across countries appeared stable, the distribution dynamics points out the emergence of three clusters....

The multidimensional view of well-being is receiving growing attention, both in academic research and policy-oriented analysis. This paper examines empirical strategies to measure poverty and inequality in multiple domains, concentrating on two problems in the use of synthetic multidimensional...

The paper describes the sample surveys on the personal distribution of incomes conducted in post-war Italy: the first survey carried out by Istituto Doxa in 1947-48; the sample survey of household income and wealth conducted by the Bank of Italy since the late 1960s; the expenditure survey, and...

This essay focuses on the nexus between economic theory and social legislation, as dealt with by Luigi Einaudi in his Lezioni di politica sociale (1942). For this purpose, the conceptual and analytical model used in Einaudi's book is identified, which is based on three main premises 1) the...

This paper examines different approaches to the measurement of multidimensional inequality and poverty. First, it outlines three aspects preliminary to any multidimensional study: the selection of the relevant dimensions; the indicators used to measure them; and the procedures for their...

A gender gap indicator is constructed for the Italian regions, with the aim of highlighting the geographical differences underlying Italy�s backwardness at European and international level. The indicator, which adapts the Gender Equality Index developed by Plantenga et al. (2009) for 25...

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...