Scribbling, scribbling, scribbling on the Internet.
Responding to Piketty’s response (linked here) to the charges raised by the Financial Times, Chris Giles notes that there remain concerns with Piketty’s presentation: There are a few things on which we agree. First, the source data on wealth inequality is poor. I have written that it is “sketchy” and Prof Piketty says it is “much …
Piketty has now come out with a substantive response to the criticisms in the Financial Times found by Giles and Giugliano. I am glad that he has done so, and I suspect that there is much to chew over in the response, so I will look forward to reading the response of others to Piketty’s defense. …
Gentle readers, whenever Paul Krugman issues a defense of Thomas Piketty regarding the charges against the latter, by all means, be sure to read that defense. Be sure to consider its merits seriously. Be sure to closely and carefully examine the data Krugman might present in defense of his point and if Krugman actually makes a …
Continue reading “Understanding Paul Krugman on Thomas Piketty”
The latest Pikettian response to Giles’s and Giugliano’s assertions regarding the quality of Piketty’s data and research is to accuse Giles and Giugliano of being “dishonest.” (Hat tip in comments here.) I suppose this means that Piketty’s is employing a classic I-am-rubber-and-you-are-glue-whatever-you-say-bounces-off-me-and-sticks-back-to-you defense, but there is little substance to the accusation; at best, Piketty can assert (without …
Remember the Reinhart/Rogoff spreadsheet error? In the event that you do not, here is a summary. Those who follow debates between economists will recall that the spreadsheet error led to all kinds of excorations of Reinhart and Rogoff on the part of liberal economists, who claimed that Reinhart and Rogoff were responsible for austerity policies …
I have bought Thomas Piketty’s book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and while I have posted many an item that takes issue with the books claims and conclusions concerning wealth inequality, I do plan on reading Piketty; his book has made quite the intellectual and cultural impact, and although I know what his basic arguments are, …
Continue reading “Facts Are Stubborn Things . . . As Thomas Piketty Is Beginning to Find Out”
Let’s run through them: Kyle Smith has six ways in which Piketty’s book fails the smell test. Many of the links have been already linked to by me, but it is nice and useful to have them in one convenient place. Don Boudreaux notes that Piketty doesn’t seem to understand the impact of trade deficits. This has …
So report Tyler Cowen and Veronique de Rugy: . . . some other French economists have taken the lead in challenging Mr. Piketty’s empirical claims. One recent paper by four economists at l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris challenges Mr. Piketty’s view that inequality has increased because the return to capital has been greater than general growth in the …
Ryan Decker points out that Piketty’s “criticisms of mathematical economics (32, 574) are not surprising given that he relies so heavily on assumptions and mechanisms that would be highly vulnerable to criticism if they were forced into the transparency of a formal model.” And the following from Garrett Jones is certainly worth reading: Market-oriented economies that learn to …
One of the interesting aspects of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century is the way in which the tome makes use of literary allusions from Jane Austen and Honoré de Balzac to make Piketty’s points about income and social mobility. I am fine with using literary allusions when they fit, but while Piketty may …
