• inequality
• poverty
• working-poor

This thesis tries to address possible determinants of poverty in Italy by an econometric analysis based on empirical evidence. In this regard, we are going to focus on the effects of individual social characteristics on the probability of being in the status of "poor" defined by at risk of poverty thresholds for the years 2014 and 2016 consecutively. Moreover, we will try to find the answers what are the observed or unobserved reasons that lead households into the poverty-trap mechanism. A particular attention will be given to the situation of "working-poor" who has a job and suffering from poverty. In general, the results that we found indicate the significant effects of social origins and different characteristics on poverty in general as well as poverty of working people.