Paul Sweeney: Will the poor be always with us, as the Bible warned? Comparing the family wealth to those with the same surname today, a new study suggests that the richest families in Florence 600 years ago remain the same today.
This study, by two Italian economists, Guglielmo Barone and Sauro Mocetti, analysed Florentine taxpayers back in 1427 to those in 2011. In almost 600 years, they found “The top earners among the current taxpayers were found to have already been at the top of the socioeconomic ladder six centuries ago.”
