We study Italian households' financial fragilities along several dimensions (income, financial assets and debts) using data from the Bank of Italy's Survey on Household Income and Wealth in the 2000-2020 period. The analysis allows us to evaluate the effect of household characteristics on the persistence of the different fragility dimensions.
The results reveal that, for all the dimensions of vulnerability considered, the share of financially fragile households increased significantly during the sovereign debt crisis. Afterwards, the incidence decreased, returning to the same levels recorded at the beginning of the century. Households that have been financially fragile in the past are more likely to be financially fragile again.
