- Title
- The Literature on Piketty
- Creator
- King, John
- Date
- 2017
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/187687
- Identifier
- vital:17114
- Identifier
-
https://doi.org/10.1080/09538259.2016.1173425
- Identifier
- ISSN:0953-8259
- Abstract
- The extensive critical literature on Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century is surveyed under nine headings. The first deals with the conservative argument that inequality in the distribution of wealth does not matter, since a rising tide lifts all boats. Second, it is claimed that Piketty's prediction of continuously increasing inequality and the return of 'patrimonial capitalism' is unjustified. Third, the quality of the empirical evidence that he cites is questioned, on a number of quite different grounds. Fourth, some critics object that Piketty's explanation of long-run trends in the distribution of wealth is too general and too theoretical. Fifth is the argument that he has used the correct (neoclassical) theory incorrectly, exaggerating the elasticity of substitution of capital for labour. Against this, post-Keynesian critics claim, sixthly, that Piketty is using the wrong theory, and should have drawn on the Kaldor-Pasinetti model of distribution and growth, and not the discredited neoclassical analysis. Seventh, Piketty has been criticised for ignoring the distribution of wealth in developing countries. Eighth, there is a wide range of objections to his most striking policy proposal, for a progressive global wealth tax. Finally, several critics from outside economics complain that Piketty has neglected a number of non-economic dimensions of inequality. I conclude by welcoming both the book and the critical literature, and calling for the distribution of wealth to be placed back on the political agenda.
- Publisher
- London: Routledge
- Relation
- Review of political economy Vol. 29, no. 1 (2017), p. 1-17
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
- Subject
- 21st century; Capital; Capitalism; Developing countries; distribution; Income inequality; Inequality; LDCs; Piketty, Thomas; Prediction; Taxation; Wealth; Wealth distribution; 3502 Banking, finance and investment; 3801 Applied economics; 3803 Economic theory
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