Household Expenditure Polarization in Italy, 1997-2006

Aim of this paper is to measure how the consumption distribution is polarized among the Italian families during the years 1997-2006. Since polarization measurement requires a precise definition of groups, we consider the households partition that better explains the household variability in their purchasing patterns. In particular, through a technique of discriminant analysis we analyze the determinants of the heterogeneous expenditure patterns of Italian households, using the Households Expenditure Survey provided by the Italian National Institute of Statistics.