Global Perspective on Italian Capitalism

This paper investigates the relationship between national and global distributions of capital and labor income in Italy from 1989 to 2020. By combining data from the Global Capital and Labor (GCL) Database and the Italian Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW), it presents five principal findings. First, between 1989 and 2016, Italians consistently declined in their global income rankings based on both capital and labor income. Second, during this period, individuals in the lower income deciles across all regions (North, Center, and South of Italy) experienced more significant declines in both types of income. Third, these trends reversed from 2016 to 2020. Fourth, labor income became a more crucial determinant of global income status for Italians compared to capital income. Fifth, transfer income can no longer elevate Italians at the bottom of the labor income distribution to global middle-class standards, unlike in the past.

Link: Global Perspective on Italian Capitalism