The Survey on Household Income and Wealth (Italy)

The seminar will describe the main characteristics of the Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW), conducted every two years by the Banca d'Italia (the Italian central bank). The main objective of the SHIW is to study the economic behavior of Italian households. In recent years the survey has been integrated in international research projects whose aim is to produce comparable cross-national data on household income and wealth. Survey data from 1977 to 2010 are freely available for research purposes. The seminar will focus in particular on the sample design of the survey and on the challenges to face when moving from theory to practice.