Piketty in the long run

Cowell, Frank A. (2014) Piketty in the long run. The British Journal of Sociology, 65 (4). pp. 708-720.

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Abstract

I examine the idea of ‘the long run’ in Piketty (2014) and related works. In contrast to simplistic interpretations of long-run models of income- and wealth-distribution Piketty (2014) draws on a rich economic analysis that models the intra- and inter-generational processes that underly the development of the wealth distribution. These processes inevitably involve both market and non-market mechanisms. To understand this approach, and to isolate the impact of different social and economic factors on inequality in the long run, we use the concept of an equilibrium distribution. However the long-run analysis of policy should not presume that there is an inherent tendency for the wealth distribution to approach equilibrium.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
Additional Information:	© 2014 London School of Economics and Political Science
Library of Congress subject classification:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Sets:	Departments > Economics Research centres and groups > Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD) Research centres and groups > Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE)
Date Deposited:	11 Apr 2016 11:24
URL:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/65992/

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