Distributional Wealth Accounts: Methods and Preliminary Evidence

Abstract

This paper presents the new quarterly experimental statistics on the Distributional Wealth Accounts (DWA) for the household sector, in line with national accounts aggregates. The Bank of Italy, together with the ECB, has coordinated the development of the methodology used for all the euro-area countries and compiles the DWA for Italy, exploiting survey data, balance sheets, information from administrative sources and banks' statistical reports. This paper analyses the methodology, based on assumptions widely used in the scientific literature. It also provides preliminary national evidence and an international comparison. The portfolio composition is heterogeneous across Italian households: the poorest ones mainly hold dwellings and deposits, while the richest ones diversify more. The wealthiest 5 per cent owns around 46 per cent of total net wealth. The main inequality indicators remained practically stable between 2017 and 2022, after the increase observed from 2010 to 2016. The concentration of wealth in Italy is lower than the euro-area average.

Keywords: micro-macro linkage, wealth distribution

JEL Classification: D14, D31, G51