A DISCUSSION OF THOMAS PIKETTY'S CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

摘要

Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century is many things, among them an engaging historical narrative, a well-deserved scolding of his fellow economists for their intellectual narrowness, a dystopian forecast about the future path of inequality, and a political call to arms. Above all, the book (along with the papers by Piketty and coauthors on which it draws) is an exercise in measurement. It is on a foundation of new facts, wrested from a multitude of historical and contemporary data sources, that the other elements of Piketty's intellectual edifice rest. In turn, the central element of Piketty's approach to measurement is that the concepts usually classified as productive capital (the input into production that results from past investment) and wealth (claims on current or future consumption) can both be measured by a single variable, for which he uses the term capital. Piketty defines capital as "the total market value of everything owned by the residents and government of a given country at a given point in time, provided that it can be traded on some market." (Piketty 2014, p. 48). Among the items included in this total are the structures, equipment, and infrastructure that make up more conventional definitions of physical capital, land, mineral deposits, precious objects, and the intellectual property, brand recognition, and market power captured in market valuations of corporate equity. The measurement of capital- both the aggregate quantity and its distribution among the population-is the book's driving force.