Socioeconomic inequalities in health. Evidence from Italy before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

In this thesis I try to understand, describe and find evidence about health differentials in Italy before and during the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020. This thesis is composed of an introductory chapter and three chapters that will focus on different facets of health inequalities. The first section will give an overview of the existing literature on the topic, describing previous methodologies, definitions, and findings about inequalities in Europe and Italy. It will end by introducing the research questions I answered in the subsequent chapters. The second chapter brings new evidence about health inequalities in Rome before the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on both individual and area-level differences. The third section will show how different levels of economic disadvantage shaped the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, in a period of differential restrictions. The fourth chapter will disentangle the effect of area-level deprivation and pre-existent chronic conditions on COVID-19 mortality. I will end the thesis with a short conclusion, discussing my main findings and their implications.