Despite its relevance in 19th-century economics, wealth -its accumulation, composition, and distribution- has largely been neglected in Italian economic history. Filling this gap, we show that between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, Italy presented a historically high value of total...

Detailed distributional estimates at finer geographical levels remain scarce, despite their critical relevance for household well being and policy intervention. This paper leverages Italian income tax records dating back to 1976 focusing on top income concentration and inequality across the...

The paper uses the flexibility of household survey data to align their income categories and recipient units with the income categories and units found in data produced by tax authorities. Our analyses, based on a standardized definition of fiscal income, allow us to locate, for top-income...