Stone Center Senior Scholar
Director, The GC Wealth Project
CUNY Graduate Center
Salvatore Morelli is the director of the GC Wealth Project and a former visiting assistant professor at the Graduate Center, CUNY. He is currently an assistant professor in public economics in the Law Department at the Roma Tre University. He holds a DPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford and is also a research associate at the Center for Studies of Economics and Finance (CSEF) at the University of Naples Federico II.
His current research projects focus on the estimation of personal wealth concentration and its evolution over time. His research to date has also investigated the distributional effect of macroeconomic crises, with particular reference to top income groups; the empirical and theoretical foundations of the view that inequality may contribute to economic and financial instability; and the evolution and measurement of several dimensions of economic inequality over time for a series of countries.
Areas of Expertise
Wealth Concentration
Tax Policy (Related to Wealth)
Featured Work
The GC Wealth Project is a multi-year collaboration to expand access to current research and information on wealth inequality.
Wealth Inequality
S. Morelli, B. Nolan, and P. Van Kerm. In Generating Prosperity for Working Families in Affluent Countries. B. Nolan (ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapt. 12. 2018.
The Concentration of Wealth in the UK Over More Than a Century
F. Alvaredo, A.B. Atkinson, and S. Morelli. Journal of Public Economics, vol. 162. pp. 26-47. 2018.
The Chartbook of Economic Inequality
A.B. Atkinson, J. Hasell, S. Morelli, and M. Roser. Institute for New Economic Thinking/Oxford. 2017.
Rising Inequality and Economic Stability
S. Morelli. In After Piketty: The Agenda for Economics and Inequality. H. Boushey, J.B. DeLong, and M. Steinbaum (eds). Chapt. 17. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2017.
The Challenge of Measuring UK Wealth Inequality in the 2000s
F. Alvaredo, A.B. Atkinson, and S. Morelli. Fiscal Studies. vol. 37, no. 1. pp. 13-33. 2016.
Post-1970 Trends in Within-Country Inequality and Poverty: Rich and Middle Income Countries
S. Morelli, T. Smeeding, and J.P. Thompson. In Handbook of Income Distribution Vol. 2A. A.B. Atkinson and F. Bourguignon (eds). pp. 596-693. Amsterdam: Elsevier. 2015.
Wealth Transfers and Net Wealth at Death: Evidence from the Italian Inheritance Tax Records 1995–2016
P. Acciari and S. Morelli. Stone Center Working Paper Series. no. 26. 2020.
Intergenerational Transfers by Size and Wealth Inequality in Rich Countries
B. Nolan, J. Palomino, P. Van Kerm, and S. Morelli. Stone Center Working Paper Series. no 21. 2020.
kmr: A Command to Correct Survey Weights for Unit Nonresponse Using Group’s Response Rates
E. Muñoz and S. Morelli. Stone Center Working Paper. no. 02. 2020.
Thoughts from the Stone Center on the Pandemic and Its Impact
In this commentary, Stone Center faculty — Miles Corak, Janet Gornick, Paul Krugman, Leslie McCall, Branko Milanovic, and Salvatore Morelli — each with unique expertise in the study of inequality, offer insights on the COVID-19 crisis.
Extreme Wealth Inequality Is Pernicious
In this interview, Salvatore Morelli explains why wealth inequality is in some ways a more dangerous threat than income inequality.
CNBC: Morelli on the Impacts of Wealth Taxes
In a video for CNBC, Salvatore Morelli discusses wealth taxes.
Launching the GC Wealth Project
Salvatore Morelli, an Oxford-trained economist and inequality scholar, joined the Stone Center in 2017 to lead the GC Wealth Project.
Analysis: Is Growing Inequality Hurting Our Economies?
In this post for the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, Salvatore Morelli discusses inequality's potential impact on macroeconomic performance and financial stability.
Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality