Measuring Wellbeing: A History of Italian Living Standards

ISBN-13: 9780199944590 / Angielski / Twarda / 2017 / 672 str.

Giovanni Vecchi

Opis

In 150 years Italy transformed itself from a poor and backward country into one where living standards are among the highest in the world. In Measuring Wellbeing, Giovanni Vecchi provides an innovative analysis of this change by drawing on family accounts that provide engaging insights into life and are the "micro" data that create the foundations for the "macro" picture of variations and fluctuations in the development of Italy.

Vecchi provides a nuanced account of the changes. He emphasizes that the concept of wellbeing is multidimensional and must include non-monetary aspects of life: nutrition, health and education, as well as less tangible elements such as freedom or the possibility to exercise one's political rights. The book deals with this polyhedral nature of wellbeing.

Among the insights are that Italians succeeded in combining growth with equity, but that the gap between the North and South did not narrow; the while longevity has increased, education has not improved as much as it could have; and that for close to three decades, Italy's virtuous path has come to a halt: the wellbeing of the Italian people is at the crossroads between progress and decline. Measuring Wellbeing engagingly combines a unique dataset and an innovative statistical method that can be adapted to other countries.

Recenzje

In this pioneering book, Giovanni Vecchi traces welfare, inequality and poverty of Italy from its reunification to today. Very few countries may boast of such a panoramic view of their economic history, as Italy can, thanks to Vecchi's work. His methodological innovation, the use of historical household budgetsmonthly or weekly expenses written down by thousands of familiesto study the evolution of living standards enables us to learn about the lives of the previous generations more than we ever expected. We are thus, through Vecchi's approach, rediscovering own economic history.

O autorze

Giovanni Vecchi is a Professor of Economics at the University of Rome "Tor Vergata". He specializes in the theory, measurement and history of welfare, as well as economic history. His scholarly articles have appeared in a number of international, peer-reviewed journals. He is a regular consultant to the World Bank on issues related to the measurement of poverty and inequality. He is President of the Italian Economic History Association (Associazione per la Storia Economica) and co-editor of the Rivista di Storia Economica.