Journal of Economic Literature
ISSN 0022-0515 (Print) | ISSN 2328-8175 (Online)
The Return of "Patrimonial Capitalism": A Review of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 52,
no. 2, June 2014
(pp. 519–34)
Abstract
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty provides a unified theory of the functioning of the capitalist economy by linking theories of economic growth and functional and personal income distributions. It argues, based on the long-run historical data series, that the forces of economic divergence (including rising income inequality) tend to dominate in capitalism. It regards the twentieth century as an exception to this rule and proposes policies that would make capitalism sustainable in the twenty-first century.Citation
Milanovic, Branko. 2014. "The Return of "Patrimonial Capitalism": A Review of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century." Journal of Economic Literature, 52 (2): 519–34. DOI: 10.1257/jel.52.2.519Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- B10 History of Economic Thought through 1925: General
- D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
- D33 Factor Income Distribution
- E25 Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
- N30 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: General, International, or Comparative
- P16 Capitalist Systems: Political Economy