600 years later, the same families in this city still have the wealth
A comparison of tax records in 1427 and 2011 shows the big earners today are descended from the same families at the top of the socioeconomic ladder six centuries ago.
Guglielmo Barone is a senior economist at the Regional Economic Research Division of the Bank of Italy (Bologna Branch). His research interests are in Applied Econometrics, Labour/Public Economics, Industrial Organization and Political Economy. He holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Bologna.