Thomas Piketty, the Future of Capitalism and the theory of Distribution: a Review Essay

CSWP 7 (October 2014)

Author Tony Aspromourgos

Keywords classical economics, functional distribution, Keynesian economics, Piero Sraffa

JEL B51, D31, D33, E12

This essay reviews Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014). The focus is upon the conceptual framework and theoretical interpretation of the empirical findings assembled in the book, rather than those empirical findings themselves (which are, in any case, broadly incontestable). The core theoretical logic of the distributional dynamics is explained and subjected to scrutiny with respect to the theory of distribution in particular, but also the theory of growth.

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