Thomas Piketty
Thomas Piketty
Thomas Pikettyis a French economist who works on wealth and income inequality. He is a professorat the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, associate chair at the Paris School of Economics and Centennial professor at the London School of Economics new International Inequalities Institute...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth7 May 1971
CountryFrance
long use scientific-method
For far too long economists have sought to define themselves in terms of their supposedly scientific methods. In fact, those methods rely on an immoderate use of mathematical models, which are frequently no more than an excuse for occupying the terrain and masking the vacuity of the content.
children eight innovation
What was the good of industrial development, what was the good of all the technological innovations, toil, and population movements if, after half a century of industrial growth, the condition of the masses was still just as miserable as before, and all lawmakers could do was prohibit factory labor by children under the age of eight?
democracy republic experts
Democracy will never be supplanted by a republic of experts—and that is a very good thing.
thinking europe democratic-ideals
The democratic ideal has always been related to a moderate level of inequality. I think one big reason why electoral democracy flourished in 19th century America better than 19th century Europe is because you had more equal distribution of wealth in America.
country believe different
It's not Utopian to believe that we can create a global registry of financial assets so we know who owns what in different countries.
levels diffusion convergence
The principal mechanism for convergence at the international as well as the domestic level is the diffusion of knowledge.
opposites method source
Without precisely defined sources, methods, and concepts, it is possible to see absolutely everything and its opposite.
discipline political intellectual
There is one great advantage to being an academic economist in France: here, economists are not highly respected in the academic and intellectual world or by political and financial elites. Hence they must set aside their contempt for other disciplines and their absurd claim to greater scientific legitimacy, despite the fact that they know almost nothing about anything.
jobs political would-be
I am not political. It is not my job. But I would be happy if politicians could read my work and draw some conclusions from it.
thinking influential difficult
Das Kapital, I think, is very difficult to read, and for me, it was not very influential.
country progressive-taxation income
The U.S. is the country that invented progressive taxation of income and of inherited wealth in the 1910s and 20s.
girlfriend outsiders impossible
Economists have put themselves in a position where what they are doing is supposed to be impossible to understand for outsiders, so they dont even talk - sometimes not even with their girlfriend or boyfriend or friends - about what they are doing.
numbers interest wells
Refusing to deal with numbers rarely serves the interests of the least well-off.
strong reality california
Contrary to a tenacious myth, France is not owned by California pension funds or the Bank of China, any more than the United States belongs to Japanese and German investors. The fear of getting into such a predicament is so strong today that fantasy often outstrips reality. The reality is that inequality with respect to capital is a far greater domestic issue than it is an international one.