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The return of"patrimonial capitalism": review of Thomas Piketty's capital in the 21st century

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  • Milanovic, Branko

Abstract

The paper provides a detailed review of Thomas Piketty's book"Capital in the 21st century."It focuses on the new contributions of the book, and in particular on its unified treatment of economic growth, functional income distribution, and concentration of personal income. It concludes that Piketty's reinvigoration of classical and empircally-drven approach is likely to have a profound impact on economics.

Suggested Citation

  • Milanovic, Branko, 2014. "The return of"patrimonial capitalism": review of Thomas Piketty's capital in the 21st century," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6974, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6974
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Richard Burkhauser & Shuaizhang Feng & Stephen Jenkins & Jeff Larrimore, 2009. "Recent Trends in Top Income Shares in the USA: Reconciling Estimates from March CPS and IRS Tax Return Data," Working Papers 09-26, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    2. Angus Deaton, 2005. "Measuring Poverty in a Growing World (or Measuring Growth in a Poor World)," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 1-19, February.
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    5. Abhijit Banerjee & Thomas Piketty, 2005. "Top Indian Incomes, 1922-2000," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 19(1), pages 1-20.
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    14. Angus Deaton, 2005. "ERRATUM: Measuring Poverty in a Growing World (or Measuring Growth in a Poor World)," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(2), pages 395-395, May.
    15. Raymond W. Goldsmith, 1984. "An Estimate Of The Size Anl Structure Of The National Product Of The Early Roman Empire," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 30(3), pages 263-288, September.
    16. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2003. "Income Inequality in the United States, 1913–1998," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 1-41.
    17. Atkinson, A. B. & Piketty, Thomas (ed.), 2010. "Top Incomes: A Global Perspective," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199286898.
    18. Goldsmith, Raymond W, 1984. "An Estimate of the Size and Structure of the National Product of the Early Roman Empire," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 30(3), pages 263-288, September.
    19. Thomas Piketty, 2003. "Income Inequality in France, 1901-1998," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(5), pages 1004-1042, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. The Piketty pessimist
      by Felix Salmon in Felix Salmon on 2014-04-26 01:08:03
    2. Mer läsning om Piketty
      by Daniel Waldenström in Ekonomistas on 2014-04-29 08:21:00
    3. Over at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth: The Daily Piketty: Thursday Focus: April 24, 2014
      by J. Bradford DeLong in Grasping Reality with the Invisible Hand on 2014-04-24 19:46:13
    4. Capital and destiny
      by Diane Coyle in The Enlightened Economist on 2014-04-14 19:46:05
    5. One year later: a few reflections on Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the 21st century”
      by Branko Milanovic in globalinequality on 2014-11-18 02:48:00

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Lilia Costabile, 2015. "A note on Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century and its critics," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 32(3), pages 377-385, December.
    2. Kornai, János, 2015. "Milyen is hát a tőke a 21. században?. Megjegyzések Piketty könyvéhez [So what is capital in the 21st century?. Notes on Piketty s book]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(9), pages 909-942.
    3. Connor Bryant & Bernd Süssmuth, 2019. "Is the Relationship of Wealth Inequality with the Real, Financial and Housing Cycle Country-Specific?," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 47(3), pages 323-341, September.
    4. Edward Whitfield, 2016. "China and the Great Doubling: Racing to the Top or Bottom of Global Labour Standards?," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 7(1), pages 37-45, February.
    5. Jomo, K. & Popov, V., 2016. "Long-Term Trends in Income Distribution," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 31(3), pages 146-160.
    6. Marisa Civardi & Renata Targetti Lenti, 2018. "Can the link between functional and personal income distribution enhance the analysis of inequality?," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 65(2), pages 137-156, June.
    7. 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.
    8. Nicolas Brisset & Benoît Walraevens, 2021. "From Capital to Property: History and Justice in the Work of Thomas Piketty," GREDEG Working Papers 2021-28, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    9. Guillaume Allègre & Xavier Timbeau, 2014. "The critique of capital in the twenty first century : in search of the macroeconomic foundations of inequality," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2014-10, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    10. Richard Pomfret, 2015. "Is Inequality Increasing?," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 48(1), pages 103-111, March.
    11. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/4g0qd281j48jib2k4okap9f4eo is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Vijay K. Seth, 2015. "Capital in Twenty-first Century," Emerging Economy Studies, International Management Institute, vol. 1(2), pages 227-233, November.
    13. van Bavel, Bas, 2016. "The Invisible Hand?: How Market Economies have Emerged and Declined Since AD 500," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199608133.
    14. Filippo Gusella & Anna Maria Variato, 2021. "Financial Instability and Income Inequality: why the connection Minsky-Piketty matters for Macroeconomics," Working Papers - Economics wp2021_15.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    15. Pasteau, Etienne & Zhu, Junyi, 2018. "Love and money with inheritance: Marital sorting by labor income and inherited wealth in the modern partnership," Discussion Papers 23/2018, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    16. VASYECHKO Olga, 2021. "A Triad of Driving Forces Behind FDI Patterns," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bucharest Economic Academy, issue 01, March.
    17. Sheung-Chi Chow & Ma. Rebecca Valenzuela & Wing-Keung Wong, 2016. "New Tests for Richness and Poorness:A Stochastic Dominance Analysis of Income Distributions in Hong Kong," Monash Economics Working Papers 25-16, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    18. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2016. "Rational Asymmetric Development, Piketty and Poverty in Africa," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 13(2), pages 221-246, December.
    19. Jamie Morgan, 2016. "Understanding Piketty’s capital in the twenty-first century," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 612-618, October.
    20. Yasunori Fujita, 2015. "Missing equation in Piketty’s r-g theory," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 57-62.
    21. Joan R. Rovira, 2015. "Piketty on Growth and Distribution," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 214(3), pages 91-114, September.
    22. Richard C. Sutch, 2016. "The One-Percent across Two Centuries: A Replication of Thomas Piketty’s Data on the Distribution of Wealth for the United States," Working Papers 201602, University of California at Riverside, Department of Economics.
    23. Galvin, Ray & Sunikka-Blank, Minna, 2018. "Economic Inequality and Household Energy Consumption in High-income Countries: A Challenge for Social Science Based Energy Research," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 78-88.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic Theory&Research; Political Economy; Emerging Markets; Inequality; Poverty Impact Evaluation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D33 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Factor Income Distribution
    • E2 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment
    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution

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