Evolution and decomposition of income inequality in Italy, 1991–2004

The aggregate measures of inequality do not display any significant trend in the concentration of equivalent income among the Italian households in the early 2000s. Yet some sizeable shifts in the income distribution seem to suggest that the relative positions of groups of households have changed on the income scale. Through a decomposition analysis of Gini index by income source we find that in the more recent years the income from self-employment is the main disequalizing factor. The decomposition by social groups provides the evidence that it is the group of self-employed and managers who have gained more ground on the income scale. This work has been debated by the three Authors under the coordination of Claudio Quintano. Rosalia Castellano has written Sect. 1, while Andrea Regoli has written Sects. 2 to 6.     

Being NEET in Europe Before and After the Economic Crisis: An Analysis of the Micro and Macro Determinants

The right to adequate minimum income protection is one of the key principles included in the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR). The EPSR takes a right-based and normative approach, aiming specifically at fulfilling people’s essential needs, not only by guaranteeing sufficiently high income levels, but also by promoting labour market inclusion and access to affordable goods and services of good quality. This paper takes the EPSR as a starting point to propose a needs-based indicator that assesses the adequacy of minimum income protection including these three dimensions in a comprehensive way. We argue that Reference Budgets (RBs), priced baskets of goods and services that represent an adequate living standard, are well-suited to construct such an indicator. To illustrate this empirically, we use RBs for adequate social participation in Belgium which have been constructed for the first time in 2008 and have been regularly updated since then. Through a combination of hypothetical household simulations of essential out-of-pocket costs and designated tax-benefits for families living on different minimum income schemes, we are able to assess the adequacy of minimum income protection for a range of household types over the period 2008–2017. The paper shows that, the proposed indicator is a useful policy tool for both ex-ante and ex-post evaluations of the adequacy of social policy measures in light of the social protection and inclusion rights included in the Pillar.