Income inequality in Italy. Tendencies and policy implications

This paper is structured as follows. In the next section we present evidence on how market inequality has evolved in several European and OECD countries by paying special attention to labor income and its relationship to human capital. Subsequently we analyze the effectiveness of the redistributive action of the welfare states. Final section is devoted to pre-distribution: how it should be interpreted, why it is necessary, and what it can accomplish. In the final section we summarize our main conclusions.