The Planet of the Rich: An Exploration

The economic literature has so far devoted a very limited attention to the rich, apart from the recent studies focusing on top income shares starting from the works of Piketty (J Polit Econ 111:1004–1042, 2003; J Eur Econ Assoc 3:382–392, 2005). Indeed, currently we have no way of defining the rich, how many there are, how much their labour earnings impact on their overall income and what share of national incomes is concentrated in their hands. We don’t even know if the rich, in the various countries, have increased in numbers or have become richer in recent years. In this chapter, we intend to investigate “the planet of the rich”, in an attempt to fill some of these gaps in the economic literature. More specifically, we will try to come up with a definition of the rich, suggesting a criterion by which they may be identified; so we can establish how many there are in Italy and in the main European countries, identify the origin of their income, particularly for the “working rich”, and determine whether their number is increasing and they are becoming richer.