Book · 2014 · intro level
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Thomas Piketty
- Venue
- Harvard University Press (English trans. Arthur Goldhammer; French orig. 2013)
- Link
- publisher / source page
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Contested finding
Heavily critiqued on data grounds (a widely reported 2014 Financial Times investigation into UK/European wealth data) and theoretical grounds (r > g does not automatically imply rising income inequality; depends on saving-behavior assumptions).
In plain language
Argues that when the return on capital (r) exceeds economic growth (g) — the historical norm outside the mid-20th century — wealth concentrates faster than income grows, and the mid-century decline in inequality was a wartime aberration, not capitalism's natural trajectory.
Technical summary
Extends the tax-data top-income tradition to wealth concentration; the r > g mechanism implies inherited capital dominates earned income absent unusual shocks (wars, depression) or policy intervention (progressive capital taxation).
Key takeaways
- Reintroduced wealth (not just income) and inheritance as central to the inequality debate.
- Reframed the mid-century 'Great Compression' as an aberration rather than an expected trajectory, directly rebutting Kuznets.
Themes
Related works
- Income Inequality in the United States, 1913–1998 — Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2003
- Economic Growth and Income Inequality — Simon Kuznets, 1955