Stone Center Senior Scholar
Director, The GC Wealth Project
CUNY Graduate Center
Salvatore Morelli is the director of The GC Wealth Project and an associate professor in public economics in the Law Department at Roma Tre University. He holds a DPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford and is also a research associate at the Center for Studies of Economics and Finance (CSEF) at the University of Naples Federico II.
His current research projects focus on the economics of inheritance taxation, the interaction between economic inequality and climate crisis, and the estimation of personal wealth concentration and its evolution over time. His research to date has also investigated the distributional effect of macroeconomic crises, with particular reference to top income groups; the empirical and theoretical foundations of the view that inequality may contribute to economic and financial instability; and the evolution and measurement of several dimensions of economic inequality over time for a series of countries.
Areas of Experise
Wealth Concentration
Tax Policy (Related to Wealth)
Featured Work
The GC Wealth Project is a multi-year collaboration to expand access to current research and information on wealth inequality.
- Stone Center Scholars Present Work at III/LIS Economic Inequality ConferenceFifteen researchers associated with the GC CUNY Stone Center, including three senior scholars, attended the 2nd III/LIS Comparative Economic Inequality Conference, held in Luxembourg on February 27 and 28.
- Salvatore Morelli on the Rising Importance of Inheritance and How to Curb Its Negative EffectsSalvatore Morelli, whose research was cited by The Economist in a recent article on the “return of inheritocracy,” discusses the surge in inherited wealth, what this means for wealth inequality, and potential solutions for the negative effects of the ongoing Great Wealth Transfer.
- Richer and More Equal? A Conversation between Salvatore Morelli and Daniel WaldenströmSalvatore Morelli, the director of the GC Wealth Project and a Stone Center Senior Scholar, and Stone Center Affiliated Scholar Daniel Waldenström discuss Waldenström’s new book, Richer and More Equal: A New History of Wealth in the West.
- Stone Center’s Fourth Cohort of Postdocs to Start Tenure-Track PositionsTina Law and Manuel Schechtl are starting new tenure-track positions this summer after completing their two-year terms at the Graduate Center.
- The Stone Center Launches the GC Wealth Project, Expanding and Consolidating Research and Data on WealthThe Stone Center announces the launch of the GC Wealth Project website, the result of a multi-year effort aimed at expanding and consolidating access to the most up-to-date research and information on wealth and wealth inequality.
- The GC Wealth Project: Salvatore Morelli on the Launch of a New Tool for Understanding Wealth InequalityIn this post, Salvatore Morelli, director of the Stone Center’s GC Wealth Project and an associate professor in public economics in the Law Department at the Roma Tre University, announces the launch of the GC Wealth Project website.
- From Measuring the Top 1 Percent to Studying the Effects of Covid-19 on Poverty and Inequality: Nishant YonzanIn this interview, Nishant Yonzan, who earned his Ph.D. from the Graduate Center in 2022, talks about his study, coauthored with Stone Center Scholars Branko Milanovic, Salvatore Morelli, and Janet Gornick, that was recently published in The Journal of Economic Inequality.
- Salvatore Morelli at Visionary Days 2021In this video, Salvatore Morelli presents his talk at the digital event “How Fast Will Tomorrow Be?” This video is in Italian.
- Mind the Gap: Disparities in Measured Income Between Survey and Tax DataIn this commentary, originally posted on VoxEU, Nishant Yonzan, Branko Milanovic, Salvatore Morelli, and Janet Gornick analyze when and why household survey data and tax data diverge at the top of the income distribution.
- How Is Personal Wealth Concentrated in Italy, Which Has One of the Highest Wealth-to-Income Ratios Among High-Income Countries?A working paper by Paolo Acciari, Facundo Alvaredo, and Salvatore Morelli uses a novel source to shed light on the wealth distribution from 1995 to 2016.
- Richer and More Equal? A Conversation between Salvatore Morelli and Daniel WaldenströmSalvatore Morelli, the director of the GC Wealth Project and a Stone Center Senior Scholar, and Stone Center Affiliated Scholar Daniel Waldenström discuss Waldenström’s new book, Richer and More Equal: A New History of Wealth in the West.
- Salvatore Morelli at Visionary Days 2021In this video, Salvatore Morelli presents his talk at the digital event “How Fast Will Tomorrow Be?” This video is in Italian.
- Virtual Workshop 2020: The Growing Relevance of Wealth and InheritanceIn this presentation, Salvatore Morelli explores the increasing importance of wealth inequality, which has been rising since the 1980s in high-income countries.
- CNBC: Morelli on the Impacts of Wealth TaxesIn a video for CNBC, Salvatore Morelli discusses wealth taxes.
- Panel: After PikettyIn this video, Stone Center scholars give context to the current political debate over economic growth and inequality.