IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bdi/opques/qef_883_24.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Relative price shocks and inequality: evidence from Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Leonardo Ciambezi

    (CNRS GREDEG, Université Côte d'Azur, Nice; Institute of Economics and l'Embeds, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa)

  • Alessandro Pietropaoli

    (Bank of Italy; CNRS GREDEG, Université Côte d'Azur, Nice)

Abstract

Is inflation equal for all? Combining Italian Household Budget Survey (HBS) and Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) data, we investigate the heterogeneity of Italian households' inflation experiences over the period 2015-23, depending on their standards of living and other observable characteristics. Following several years of distributional inflation neutrality, we find that the price surge that began in mid-2021 especially increased the cost of living for poorer households and more vulnerable socio-demographic groups, thus contributing to increasing overall inequality. After peaking in the second half of 2022, the aggregate inflation rate declined sharply in 2023, as did the differential exposure of Italian households.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonardo Ciambezi & Alessandro Pietropaoli, 2024. "Relative price shocks and inequality: evidence from Italy," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 883, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    • Handle: RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_883_24
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/qef/2024-0883/QEF_883_24.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    household-specific price indices; energy price shocks; inflation inequality; Italy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_883_24. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bdigvit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.