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Financial wealth in Italy: evidence from Banking Supervisory Reports

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  • Francesco Vercelli

    (Bank of Italy)

Abstract

This study analyses some distributive features of household financial wealth in Italy from 2012 to 2023, exploiting Italian Banking Supervisory Reports. For each custodian bank and geographical area, we have information on securities accounts divided into four groups according to their outstanding amounts of financial instruments (debt securities, listed shares, and mutual fund shares). We see that portfolio composition varies across amount brackets and has changed over the period of analysis. We compute indicators of inequality based on the average amounts of financial instruments by bracket, and we find that inequality increased from 2012 to 2021 and decreased thereafter. Finally, we show that the richest class obtains larger capital gains than the other classes, which may be due to higher financial education levels and/or easier access to financial advice services.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Vercelli, 2024. "Financial wealth in Italy: evidence from Banking Supervisory Reports," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 865, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    • Handle: RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_865_24
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    File URL: https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/qef/2024-0865/QEF_865_24.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    wealth distribution; inequality; portfolio composition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

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