Ricerc@Sapienza

This paper aims to fill the gaps in the analysis of risk-sharing channels at the microlevel, both within and across households. Using data from the Bank of Italy's Survey on Household Income and Wealth covering the financial crisis, we are able to quantify in a unified and consistent framework several risk-sharing mechanisms that so far have been documented separately. We find that Italian households were able to smooth on average about 85% of shocks to household head's earnings in both 2008–2010 and 2010–2012 spells.

This paper aims to fill the gap on the analysis of consumption smoothing/risksharing channels at the micro level, both within and across households. Using data from the Bank of Italy’s Survey on Household Income and Wealth covering the financial crisis, we are able to quantify in a unified and consistent framework several risksharing mechanisms that so far have been documented separately. We find that Italian households were able to smooth about 83% of shocks household head’s