4 ms·

> Much of Piketty's work has been widely debunked, especially r > g Big claim.

peterhadlaw 8y ago
This book was a great read and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a little more perspective on Piketty's work: https://campus.aynrand.org/works/2015/10/09/equal-is-unfair https://campus.aynrand.org/works/2015/10/09/equal-is-unfair
- matthewowen 8y ago
  Published by the Ayn Rand institute.
  - peterhadlaw 8y ago
    Publisher: St. Martin's Press (March 29, 2016) ISBN-10: 125008444X ISBN-13: 978-1250084446 Actually, no, that's just an article diving into the contents of the book. I figured might be helpful in case people didn't want to read the full book.
barry-cotter 8y ago
Challenging the Empirical Contribution of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century has been widely debated on theoretical grounds, yet continues to attract acclaim for its historically-infused data analysis. In this study we conduct a closer scrutiny of Piketty's empirics than has appeared thus far, focusing upon his treatment of the United States. We find evidence of pervasive errors of historical fact, opaque methodological choices, and the cherry-picking of sources to construct favorable patterns from ambiguous data. Additional evidence suggests that Piketty used a highly distortive data assumption from the Soviet Union to accentuate one of his main historical claims about global “capitalism” in the 20th century. Taken together, these problems suggest that Piketty’s highly praised and historically-driven empirical work may actually be one of the book’s greatest weaknesses. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2543012 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2543012 How Different Studies Measure Income Inequality in the US Piketty and Company Are Not the Only Game in Town ... The results from at least four studies were compared for three measures of income change: change in median incomes, share of growth captured by the top 10 percent, and the changing income share of the top 1 percent. In all cases, Piketty and Saez (2003) were the outlier, showing the most increased inequality. And in all three measures of income change, Piketty, Saez, and Zucman (2018) found much less growth in income inequality than Piketty and Saez (2003). This brief does a meta-analysis of different findings to estimate a “consensus” level of change. Applying Canberra Group (2001, 2011) recommendations, I find that instead of stagnating, real median incomes grew by just over 40 percent (1 percent a year) from 1979 to 2014; the top 10 percent of the income ladder captured 45 percent of income growth from 1979 to 2014; and the share of the top 1 percent grew 3.5 percentage points. All studies find that income inequality rose after 1979, but common perceptions that all income gain went to the top 10 percent and middle class incomes stagnated (or even declined) are wrong. https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/99455/how_different_studies_measure_income_inequality.pdf https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/99455/...

This book was a great read and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a little more perspective on Piketty's work: https://campus.aynrand.org/works/2015/10/09/equal-is-unfair https://campus.aynrand.org/works/2015/10/09/equal-is-unfair

matthewowen 8y ago
Published by the Ayn Rand institute.
- peterhadlaw 8y ago
  Publisher: St. Martin's Press (March 29, 2016) ISBN-10: 125008444X ISBN-13: 978-1250084446 Actually, no, that's just an article diving into the contents of the book. I figured might be helpful in case people didn't want to read the full book.

barry-cotter 8y ago

Challenging the Empirical Contribution of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century has been widely debated on theoretical grounds, yet continues to attract acclaim for its historically-infused data analysis. In this study we conduct a closer scrutiny of Piketty's empirics than has appeared thus far, focusing upon his treatment of the United States. We find evidence of pervasive errors of historical fact, opaque methodological choices, and the cherry-picking of sources to construct favorable patterns from ambiguous data. Additional evidence suggests that Piketty used a highly distortive data assumption from the Soviet Union to accentuate one of his main historical claims about global “capitalism” in the 20th century. Taken together, these problems suggest that Piketty’s highly praised and historically-driven empirical work may actually be one of the book’s greatest weaknesses. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2543012 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2543012 How Different Studies Measure Income Inequality in the US Piketty and Company Are Not the Only Game in Town ... The results from at least four studies were compared for three measures of income change: change in median incomes, share of growth captured by the top 10 percent, and the changing income share of the top 1 percent. In all cases, Piketty and Saez (2003) were the outlier, showing the most increased inequality. And in all three measures of income change, Piketty, Saez, and Zucman (2018) found much less growth in income inequality than Piketty and Saez (2003). This brief does a meta-analysis of different findings to estimate a “consensus” level of change. Applying Canberra Group (2001, 2011) recommendations, I find that instead of stagnating, real median incomes grew by just over 40 percent (1 percent a year) from 1979 to 2014; the top 10 percent of the income ladder captured 45 percent of income growth from 1979 to 2014; and the share of the top 1 percent grew 3.5 percentage points. All studies find that income inequality rose after 1979, but common perceptions that all income gain went to the top 10 percent and middle class incomes stagnated (or even declined) are wrong. https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/99455/how_different_studies_measure_income_inequality.pdf https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/99455/...