There is still time to apply for the 2026 Datini-Ester seminar on "Craft Guilds & Unions"! All PhD students working on these topics are welcome to apply! Join us in beautiful Prato (Tuscany) for this funded experience! (deadline November 15)
www.istitutodatini.it/ester/htm/ca...

Next Monday (Oct 6) the two-days conference "Inequality & History" will begin, hosted by @dondenacentre.bsky.social at Bocconi University (Milan). Join us to explore & debate inequality across history, from Classical Antiquity until today! Remote attendance possible; QR code in the program below👇

I am proud to announce that my book "As Gods Among Men. A History of the Rich in the West" has been awarded the Ranki Biennial Prize by the Economic History Association!😊👇

In Renaissance Florence, the Medici family had the habit of holding a procession on the Feast of the Epiphany dressed as the Three Wise Men. Why would this matter for our understanding of social mobility in the past - and maybe not only in the past...? 👇

Glimpses from the Lecture: in the last seven centuries or so, inequality grew almost constantly - the only phases of decline were triggered by major catastrophes (the interpretation of the data is slightly less depressing that it might seem...) (but just slightly, mind...)👇

The call for the 2026 Datini-Ester seminar "From Craft Guilds to Unions" is now open! All PhD students working on these topics are welcome to apply! Join us in beautiful Prato (Tuscany) for this great experience! (deadline October 15)
istitutodatini.it/ester/htm/ca...

Se il 15 aprile siete a Voghera o dintorni, unitevi a noi presso la casa-museo Gallini per una presentazione del libro "Come dèi fra gli uomini. Una storia dei ricchi in Occidente" (Laterza). Lo discuterò con @eugeniocau.bsky.social (@ilpost.it); modera Pier Ezio Ghezzi🙏

"Empires... have a high potential for inequality. However, this potential is not always fully exploited.... our estimates characterize the Roman Empire ca. 165 CE as relatively egalitarian... [and] the Han Empire ca. 2 CE as an intermediate case but on the high extraction side"

... a partire dal mio recente libro "Come dèi fra gli uomini. Una storia dei ricchi in Occidente" (@editorilaterza)

4/7 Focusing on the Modern Age: the first phase of inequality decline in the 20th C is connected to the World Wars, but it is not only catastrophes-induced: the expansion of progressive taxation mattered – as it did after WW2.

3/7 Italy, of course, did not exist as a unified country before 1861, so the previous graph reports the average of 4 pre-unification states: unpacked here (top5%), with the addition of England and Germany (also not a unified country before 1871, mind…)

2/7 During the last 7 centuries or so wealth has tended to become ever more concentrated in few hands – observe the “one-percenters”👇. With two exceptions: the decades following the Black Death pandemic of 1347-52, and the period from the beginning of World War I until the mid-1970s.

here are the books to be discussed at the round table

Join us on March 26 for the round table "Inequality in Human Societies": a conversation about three recent books, by Branko Milanovic, Zachary Parolin, and myself. Full program enclosed. Live streaming at the link: unibocconi-it.zoom.us/j/98004804094 (or use QR code in the program). Passcode: 809191

The spacial distribution of millionaires in the US in 1892, when American wealth was still heavily concentrated in the East Coast. Based on a rich list by the New York Tribune. I discuss the composition of the rich across the ages in my book As Gods Among Men. A History of the Rich in the West (PUP)