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Is income becoming more polarized Italy? A closer look with a distributional approach

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  • Riccardo Massari

Abstract

During the 1990’s and the early 2000’s income inequality in Italy shows levels higher than many other OECD countries, not displaying any significant trend, upward or downward. This evidence relies essentially on summary measures of inequality, which may not capture aspects of the whole income probability density, such as multi-modalities and polarization. This paper applies a non-parametric tool, the “relative distribution”, to describe patterns of changes on the entire Italian household income distribution over the period 1989–2006. Furthermore, this approach also allows us to decompose the relative density into changes in location and changes in shape, in order to emphasize whether income distribution becomes more polarized or exhibits patterns of convergence toward middle income classes. A similar decomposition enables us to analyze the impact of selected covariates on income distribution. During the period Italy experienced a significant increase of household income polarization, which has particularly affected incomes below the median. In addition, this relative polarization is mainly correlated to changes in the returns to household-head occupational status.

Suggested Citation

  • Riccardo Massari, 2009. "Is income becoming more polarized Italy? A closer look with a distributional approach," Working Papers 1, Doctoral School of Economics, Sapienza University of Rome.
  • Handle: RePEc:dsc:wpaper:1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. F. Clementi & A. L. Dabalen & V. Molini & F. Schettino, 2017. "When the Centre Cannot Hold: Patterns of Polarization in Nigeria," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(4), pages 608-632, December.
    3. Clementi,F. & Fabiani,M. & Molini,V., 2018. "The devil is in the details : growth, polarization, and poverty reduction in Africa in the past two decades," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8494, The World Bank.
    4. Clementi, Fabio & Molini, Vasco & Schettino, Francesco, 2018. "All that Glitters is not Gold: Polarization Amid Poverty Reduction in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 275-291.
    5. Ilaria Petrarca & Roberto Ricciuti, 2015. "Relative income distribution in six European countries: market and disposable income," LIS Working papers 629, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    6. Schettino, Francesco & Khan, Haider A., 2020. "Income polarization in the USA: What happened to the middle class in the last few decades?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 149-161.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income distribution; Relative Distribution; Polarization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General

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