Are Italian farming households actually poorer than other non agricultural households? An empirical analysis using different sources of microeconomic information

The aim of this paper is to supply empirical evidence on the relative position of farming households within the overall income distribution in Italy. The analysis relies on the elementary data of three nation-wide surveys carried out by ISTAT: the Households’ Budget Survey (BF), the European Survey on Incomes and Living Conditions (EUSILC) and the Farm Business Survey (REA). The three surveys supply alternative views (and different statistical coverage) of the agricultural households institutional sector. Despite substantial differences in their design, a triangulation across these sources could be conducive to a more reliable assessment of income disparities (if any) between farming and non-farming households within a “total household income” perspective.