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Spring 2015

ISSN 0890-913X

Volume 30, Number 1

Categories: Spring 2015 | Economic Systems

Challenging the Empirical Contribution of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Phillip W. Magness, Institute for Humane Studies, George Mason University

Robert P. Murphy, Texas Tech University

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TheJournalofPrivateEnterprise30(1),2015,1–34ChallengingtheEmpiricalContributionofThomasPiketty’sCapitalintheTwenty-FirstCenturyPhillipW.MagnessInstituteforHumaneStudies,GeorgeMasonUniversityRobertP.MurphyInstituteforEnergyResearch______________________________________________________AbstractThomasPiketty’sCapitalintheTwenty-FirstCenturyhasbeenwidelydebatedontheoreticalgrounds,yetitcontinuestoattractacclaimforitshistoricallyinfuseddataanalysis.Inthisstudy,weconductacloserscrutinyofPiketty’sempiricsthanhasappearedthusfar,focusinguponhistreatmentoftheUnitedStates.Wefindevidenceofpervasiveerrorsofhistoricalfact,opaquemethodologicalchoices,andthecherry-pickingofsourcestoconstructfavorablepatternsfromambiguousdata.AdditionalevidencesuggeststhatPikettyusedahighlydistortivedataassumptionfromtheSovietUniontoaccentuateoneofhismainhistoricalclaimsaboutglobal“capitalism”inthetwentiethcentury.Takentogether,theseproblemssuggestthatPiketty’shighlypraisedandhistoricallydrivenempiricalworkmayactuallybeoneofthebook’sgreatestweaknesses.______________________________________________________JELCodes:N01,N10,D31,D63Keywords:economichistory,ThomasPiketty,capital,inequalityI.IntroductionThomasPiketty’sCapitalintheTwenty-FirstCentury(2014b)beginswithaboldclaim.Theensuingwork,hepromises,is“basedonmuchmoreextensivehistoricalandcomparativedatathanwereavailabletopreviousresearchers,datacoveringthreecenturiesandmorethantwentycountries,aswellasanewtheoreticalframeworkthataffordsadeeperunderstandingoftheunderlyingmechanisms”ofhissubjectmatter(2014b,p.1).Thoughhequalifiesthisassertionwithanacknowledgmentofanimperfectandincompletedataset,thisconcessionshouldnotbemistakenformodesty.AsPiketty1

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Title	Challenging the Empirical Contribution of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Authors/Creators:	Phillip W. Magness, Institute for Humane Studies, George Mason University Robert P. Murphy, Texas Tech University
Year:	2015
Volume:	30
Number:	1
Pages:	1 - 34
Publisher:	The Association of Private Enterprise Education
ISSN:	0890-913X
Document Type:	Articles
Keywords:	economic history, Thomas Piketty, capital, inequality

Citation:
Magness, Phillip W.; Murphy, Robert P. / 2015. "Challenging the Empirical Contribution of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century." The Journal of Private Enterprise, 30(1): 1-34.