Gender Wealth Gap in Italy

Abstract

The paper, using data from the Bank of Italy’s Survey of Household Income and Wealth, estimates the intrahousehold distribution of wealth. On the basis of reconstructed data, a large gap between men and women emerges, greater for financial assets than for real assets and in particular for real estate. This gap, smaller among young people, increases with age; it is decreasing over time, but has remained significant in recent years. Gini concentration indices computed on individual net wealth are far greater than those calculated on household wealth or per capita wealth, which shares wealth equally among household members. The trend in concentration indices, however, does not significantly change. Some regressions suggest that the observed gaps are largely attributable to gender differences in terms of age, educational qualifications, employment and income.