Measuring Wellbeing A History of Italian Living Standards

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.

Giovanni Vecchi is Professor of Economics at the University of Rome "Tor Vergata". He serves the World Bank as a consultant on poverty and inequality analysis, and has advised governments and international agencies on this subject. He has written extensively on Italian economic history. He is President of the Italian Economic History Association (Associazione per la Storia Economica) and co-editor of Rivista di Storia Economica.