Features of personal income inequality before and during the crisis: an analysis of Italian regions

Abstract

This paper gives extensive evidence of disposable income inequality inside regions of Italy and its associated population features. It explores whether the Great Recession changed income inequality within or between regions. Inequality appears largely to be a within-region problem, particularly in the South, and the crisis exacerbated this phenomenon. Middle class women, migrants and large households in middle/bottom classes, and bottom class mothers worsened their income status with the crisis.Education was an important absorber for middle class individuals while married status and employment protected bottom class individuals. Yet, large heterogeneity exists across regions.

Risk of poverty in Southern Europe

“…Results about household economic “condition” come next. Although being employed is an insurance against the odds of AROP, those for self‐employed and temporary worker households are significantly greater than 1 in 2007, and much worse in 2014, when the “self‐employed” ratio increases to 3.45 and the “temporary work” ratio to 2.56 (temporary workers are those suffering the most from the burden of the crisis, see Mussida & Parisi, ). Odds for NEET households is greater than 1 but not statistically significant (likely due to the small number of observations on this feature) in 2007, and significantly improving its position in 2014.…”

Mobility, housing and labour markets in times of economic crises

“…Caution should be exercised in managing these inequalities, taking into account different scales of analysis. For instance, the labour market reforms of the 2000s, implemented in all Italian regions, especially the south, aimed at reducing the north-south divide in the country, resulted in inequalities within regions substantially increasing, while inequalities between regions did not change significantly after the economic crisis (Mussida & Parisi, 2019, in this issue). Moreover, as has been concluded in some of the papers in this special issue, by identifying the features of individuals most affected by the crisis, policies could be defined for these specific groups.…”

Cooperative Movement and Prosperity across Italian Regions

“…This is the conclusion reached also inMussida and Parisi (2020) andDoran and Jordan (2013). However, inDoran and Jordan (2013, p. 27) the real gross value added per capita, instead of real income per capita, is used to measure living standards for each region.…”

“…See, for instance,Murias et al (2012),Bertin et al (2018),Pinar (2018),Palomino (2019),Mussida andParisi (2020) andD'Urso et al (2020). Notice, however, that the measures of households' income distribution (averages and/or indices of dispersion) are included among the indicators of well-being, whereas in our analysis such measures are embedded into an index (Yit) that needs to be analysed wrt other indicators, the cooperative presence being the candidate mostly under scrutiny.…”