Capital in the Twenty-First Century

The main driver of inequality--returns on capital that exceed the rate of economic growth--is again threatening to generate extreme discontent and undermine democratic values. Thomas Piketty's findings in this ambitious, original, rigorous work will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality.

A New York Times #1 BestsellerAn Amazon #1 BestsellerA Wall Street Journal #1 BestsellerA USA Today BestsellerA Sunday Times BestsellerA Guardian Best Book of the 21st CenturyWinner of the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year AwardWinner of the British Academy MedalFinalist, National Book Critics Circle AwardWhat are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality.Piketty shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality-the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth-today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, Piketty says, and may do so again.A work of extraordinary ambition, originality, and rigor, Capital in the Twenty-First Century reorients our understanding of economic history and confronts us with sobering lessons for today.

Auteur
Thomas Piketty is Professor of Economics and Economic History at L'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and at the Paris School of Economics and Codirector of the World Inequality Lab.

Texte du rabat

What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality.

Résumé
The main driver of inequalityreturns on capital that exceed the rate of economic growthis again threatening to generate extreme discontent and undermine democratic values. Thomas Piketty's findings in this ambitious, original, rigorous work will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality.

Contenu
Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part One: Income and Capital 1. Income and Output 2. Growth: Illusions and Realities Part Two: The Dynamics Of The Capital/Income Ratio 3. The Metamorphoses of Capital 4. From Old Europe to the New World 5. The Capital/Income Ratio Over the Long Run 6. The Capital-Labor Split in the Twenty-First Century Part Three: The Structure Of In Equality 7. Inequality and Concentration: Preliminary Bearings 8. Two Worlds 9. Inequality of Labor Income 10. Inequality of Capital Ownership 11. Merit and Inheritance in the Long Run 12. Global Inequality of Wealth in the Twenty- First Century Part Four: Regulating Capital In The Twenty- First Century 13. A Social State for the Twenty-First Century 14. Rethinking the Progressive Income Tax 15. A Global Tax on Capital 16. The Question of the Public Debt Conclusion Notes Contents in Detail Tables and Illustrations Index