IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mes/ijpoec/v43y2014i3p26-34.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the Causes of Growing Inequality: Piketty, Pasinetti and Taylor

Author

Listed:
  • Edward J. Nell

Abstract

Lance Taylor, in this issue, offers a solid critique of Piketty’s account of the causes of the changes in inequality over the past centuries and especially its recent increase. Piketty’s analysis relies on the neo-Classical aggregate production function, and the relationship r > g; Taylor’s critique hits the mark on the first, but seems to miss on the second, and his alternative account also appears flawed. He invokes Pasinetti, but the Pasinetti model gives very different results if some realistic changes are introduced. In particular, if high executive pay is taken into account, as realism demands, an apparently opposite conclusion or a contradiction may be reached. But dropping the requirement that growth be balanced (‘uneven development’) allows a Pasinetti approach to establish a simple, though still abstract and partial, model of the growth of inequality in wealth.

Suggested Citation

  • Edward J. Nell, 2014. "On the Causes of Growing Inequality: Piketty, Pasinetti and Taylor," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 26-34, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:mes:ijpoec:v:43:y:2014:i:3:p:26-34
    DOI: 10.1080/08911916.2014.1001702
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08911916.2014.1001702
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/08911916.2014.1001702?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lance Taylor, 2014. "The Triumph of the Rentier? Thomas Piketty vs. Luigi Pasinetti & John Maynard Keynes," SCEPA working paper series. 2014-7, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    2. Lance Taylor, 2014. "The Triumph of the Rentier? Thomas Piketty vs. Luigi Pasinetti and John Maynard Keynes," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 4-17, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kazuhiro Kurose, 2022. "A two-class economy from the multi-sectoral perspective: the controversy between Pasinetti and Meade–Hahn–Samuelson–Modigliani revisited," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 239-270, April.
    2. Mattauch, Linus & Klenert, David & Stiglitz, Joseph E. & Edenhofer, Ottmar, 2017. "Piketty meets Pasinetti: On public investment and intelligent machinery," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168156, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    3. Arthur Jacobs, 2023. "Capitalist-Worker Wealth Distribution in a Task-Based Model of Automation," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 23/1064, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    4. Fischer, Thomas, 2017. "Thomas Piketty and the rate of time preference," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 111-133.
    5. Luca Zamparelli, 2017. "Wealth Distribution, Elasticity of Substitution and Piketty: An ‘Anti-Dual’ Pasinetti Economy," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(4), pages 927-946, November.
    6. Baranzini, Mauro L. & Mirante, Amalia, 2021. "Pasinetti's theorem: A narrow escape, for what was to become an inexhaustible research programme," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 470-481.
    7. Stefan Ederer & Miriam Rehm, 2021. "Wealth inequality and aggregate demand," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(2), pages 405-424, May.
    8. Gregor Semieniuk, 2017. "Piketty’s Elasticity of Substitution: A Critique," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 64-79, January.
    9. Mattauch, Linus & Klenert, David & Stiglitz, Joseph E. & Edenhofer, Ottmar, 2022. "Overcoming wealth inequality by capital taxes that finance public investment," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 383-395.
    10. Hiroaki Sasaki, 2022. "Growth and income distribution in an economy with dynasties and overlapping generations," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 215-238, April.
    11. Geoffrey C. Harcourt, 2015. "Review Article of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty," Discussion Papers 2015-10, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    12. Soon Ryoo, 2016. "Inequality of Income and Wealth in the Long Run: A Kaldorian Perspective," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 429-457, May.
    13. Borissov, K. & Pakhnin, M., 2018. "A Division of Society into the Rich and the Poor: Some Approaches to Modeling," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 40(4), pages 32-59.
    14. Linus Mattauch & Ottmar Edenhofer & David Klenert & Sophie Bénard, 2016. "Distributional Effects of Public Investment when Wealth and Classes are Back," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(3), pages 603-629, July.
    15. Kumar, Rishabh & Schoder, Christian & Radpour, Siavash, 2018. "Demand driven growth and capital distribution in a two class model with applications to the United States," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-8.
    16. Javier López-Bernardo & Félix López-Martínez & Engelbert Stockhammer, 2016. "A Post-Keynesian Response to Piketty's ‘Fundamental Contradiction of Capitalism’," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 190-204, April.
    17. Thomas R. Michl, 2016. "Capitalists, Workers and Thomas Piketty's," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 205-219, April.
    18. repec:epa:cepawp:2014-8 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. José Gabriel Palma & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2016. "Do Nations Just Get the Inequality They Deserve? The “Palma Ratio” Re-examined," International Economic Association Series, in: Kaushik Basu & Joseph E. Stiglitz (ed.), Inequality and Growth: Patterns and Policy, chapter 2, pages 35-97, Palgrave Macmillan.
    20. repec:saq:wpaper:1/15 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Correa, Romar, 2015. "Conflict in the profit-led growth model," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-9.
    22. Marwil Jhonatan Dávila Fernádez & José Luis Oreiro, 2016. "Capital In The Twenty First Century: Reinterpretando A Contradição Fundamental Do Capitalismo," Anais do XLIII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 43rd Brazilian Economics Meeting] 096, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mes:ijpoec:v:43:y:2014:i:3:p:26-34. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/MIJP20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.