Consumption and Income Inequality in Italy

Increasingly, economists rely on microeconomic data to analyze macroeconomic policy shifts and structural reforms. This paper presents stylized facts on labor supply, income, consumption, wealth, and several measures of consumption and income inequality drawn from the Survey of Household Income and Wealth conducted by the Bank of Italy. The Survey spans the 1977-2006 period, has information on consumption, income and wealth, and a sizable panel component that allows econometricians to estimate sophisticated income, consumption and wealth processes and to analyze labor market and portfolio transitions. Given the population changes associated with the demographic transition and the Italian policy reforms of the last two decades, the data represents an ideal playing field for applied macroeconomists.