Italy is facing its worst economic crisis since the Second World War. As many studies have already shown, the crisis is affecting the country’s social class structure, thus accentuating several inequality tendencies. In this connection, the empirical purposes of this article are twofold: (1) to analyze whether accumulation and inequality in wealth are growing or declining in absolute terms; and (2) to investigate the relationship between social class and wealth inequality. To this end, we adopt a longitudinal approach – that is, we take the 1993–2014 period into account – by using data from the Italian Survey of Household Income and Wealth. Our findings suggest that overall net worth has trended down in the years following the beginning of the crisis, and that inequality in wealth has basically been increasing during the 20-year period, with a decline from 2012. However, there has been no persistent social splitting process in wealth distribution by social class. Rather, there is a high (and increasing) level of domestic differentiation in terms of household wealth by class, mainly within the lower class and selfemployed middle class, which could put further stress on social cohesion standards and allow new forms of social vulnerability to emerge
Social class and wealth inequality in Italy over 20 years, 1993–2014
Joselle Dagnes;Marianna Filandri;Luca Storti
2018-01-01
Abstract
Italy is facing its worst economic crisis since the Second World War. As many studies have already shown, the crisis is affecting the country’s social class structure, thus accentuating several inequality tendencies. In this connection, the empirical purposes of this article are twofold: (1) to analyze whether accumulation and inequality in wealth are growing or declining in absolute terms; and (2) to investigate the relationship between social class and wealth inequality. To this end, we adopt a longitudinal approach – that is, we take the 1993–2014 period into account – by using data from the Italian Survey of Household Income and Wealth. Our findings suggest that overall net worth has trended down in the years following the beginning of the crisis, and that inequality in wealth has basically been increasing during the 20-year period, with a decline from 2012. However, there has been no persistent social splitting process in wealth distribution by social class. Rather, there is a high (and increasing) level of domestic differentiation in terms of household wealth by class, mainly within the lower class and selfemployed middle class, which could put further stress on social cohesion standards and allow new forms of social vulnerability to emergeFile | Dimensione | Formato | |
---|---|---|---|
2018 Dagnes Filandri Storti.pdf
Accesso riservato
Tipo di file:
PDF EDITORIALE
Dimensione
1.6 MB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
1.6 MB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri Richiedi una copia |
Dagnes, Filandri, Storti_Social class and wealth inequality in Italy over twenty years, 1993-2014_POST PRINT-1.pdf
Accesso aperto
Tipo di file:
POSTPRINT (VERSIONE FINALE DELL’AUTORE)
Dimensione
567.4 kB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
567.4 kB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri |
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.