Fifty years of household income and wealth surveys: history, methods and future prospects

The paper describes the evolution of the Survey of Household Income and Wealth from the early sixties until today. It shows how the innovations that have taken place over time have improved the quality of the data collected and expanded the possibilities for analysis. The work also examines in detail how the survey data compare to those drawn from other sources (national accounts, tax data, censuses, other sample surveys and so on), summarizing the main results of several works on this subject. The conclusion recalls the survey’s main developments, which highlight the need to pursue greater integration with other surveys at international level, sample and administrative sources in Italy and aggregate statistics.