Thomas Piketty facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Thomas Piketty
Piketty in 2015
Born	(1971-05-07) 7 May 1971 (age 54) Clichy, France
Spouse(s)	Julia Cagé ​ (m. 2014)​
Institutions	Paris School of Economics School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences London School of Economics Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Field	Public economics, economic history
Doctoral advisor	Roger Guesnerie
Influences	Simon Kuznets, Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, Anthony Atkinson, Kenneth Pomeranz, Amartya Sen, Julia Cagé, Lucas Chancel, Camille Landais, Emmanuel Saez, John Rawls, Emile Durkheim, Leon Bourgeois
Awards	Honorary Doctorate, Clarivate Citation Laureates (2023) University of Johannesburg (2015) Medalla Rectoral, Universidad de Chile (2015) Yrjö Jahnsson Award (2013) Prix du meilleur jeune économiste de France (2002)
Information at IDEAS / RePEc

Thomas Piketty (born 7 May 1971) is a famous French economist. He teaches economics at several top universities. These include the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and the London School of Economics (LSE).

Piketty studies how money and wealth are shared among people. He looks at why some people have a lot of money and others have less. His most famous book is Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2013). This book talks about how wealth has been shared over the last 250 years.

He believes that rich people's money often grows faster than the economy. This can make wealth differences bigger over time. Piketty suggests that better education can help reduce this gap. He also thinks sharing knowledge and skills widely is important. In 2019, he wrote Capital and Ideology, which explores inequality through history. His 2022 book, A Brief History of Equality, is a shorter book for everyone. It discusses how wealth can be shared more fairly.

Early Life and Education

Thomas Piketty was born in a town near Paris, France. He was very good at science in school. At 18, he started studying math and economics at a top French school.

By age 22, he earned his PhD degree. His research was about how wealth is shared in society. He studied at the LSE and EHESS for his PhD. His work was so good that he won an award for the best thesis that year.

Career Highlights

After finishing his PhD, Piketty taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US. This was from 1993 to 1995. In 1995, he returned to France to work as a researcher. He became a professor at EHESS in 2000.

In 2002, Piketty won an award for the best young economist in France. He helped start the Paris School of Economics (PSE) in 2006. He was its first head.

Piketty often writes articles for French newspapers. He shares his ideas on economic issues. In 2013, he won the Yrjö Jahnsson Award. This award is for economists under 45 who have made important contributions.

In 2015, he was offered a high French honor, the Légion d'honneur. But he turned it down. He said he didn't think the government should decide who is honorable.

He also joined the British Labour Party's economic advisory team in 2015. He wanted to help them create economic policies. These policies aimed to tackle big issues in the UK and Europe. He later left this role in 2016.

In 2015, Piketty also received an honorary degree from the University of Johannesburg. He gave a special lecture there. He joined the LSE in 2015 as a distinguished professor. He continues his research on wealth inequality there.

Economic Research

Piketty focuses on economic inequality. He uses history and statistics in his research. He looks at how wealth has grown compared to the economy over 200 years. He uses old tax records to study the richest people. This helps him see how their wealth grew compared to others.

His 2013 book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, uses data from 250 years. It shows that wealth often becomes more concentrated. To fix this, he suggests a global tax on wealth. This tax would be higher for those with more wealth.

Studying Long-Term Inequality

Piketty's research on high incomes in France led to a book in 2001. It used tax data from the 20th century. He expanded this work in his popular book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century.

A study by Piketty and Emmanuel Saez showed something interesting. In 2012, the top 10% of earners in the US made more than half of the country's total income. This was the highest level in a century.

Inequality in France

Piketty's work shows that income differences in France decreased a lot in the 20th century. This happened mostly after World War II. He thinks this was because wealth differences became smaller.

He believes this was due to a high income tax after the war. This tax reduced how much extra money the richest people could save. Piketty warns that if taxes on the wealthy are cut, large fortunes could grow again. This could lead to a system where a few families control most of the wealth.

Comparing Countries

Piketty has also compared inequality in other developed countries. He worked with other economists, like Emmanuel Saez. They created data series for other countries. This research looked at how inequality changed in the US and Europe.

They found that after World War II, English-speaking countries saw less inequality. But over the last thirty years, inequality has grown in these countries.

Challenging Old Ideas

Piketty's work builds on the ideas of Simon Kuznets from the 1950s. Kuznets thought that inequality would naturally decrease over time. He believed it would form a curve. This was because workers moved from low-paying jobs to higher-paying ones.

Piketty disagrees that this decrease is natural. He says that wealth inequality decreased for other reasons. For example, income tax was created. He points out that inequality has sharply increased in the United States recently. It has returned to levels seen in the 1930s.

Other Research Areas

Piketty has also studied other topics related to inequality. He looked at how differences between schools can cause wage inequality. He has also suggested changes to pension and tax systems in France.

In 2018, Piketty suggested that political parties in Western countries are influenced by "elites." He called left-wing parties the "Brahmin Left." He called right-wing parties the "Merchant Right." He believes left-wing parties have lost working-class voters. They are now supported more by highly educated voters.

Major Books

Piketty has written several important books. They all focus on wealth and income inequality.

Capital in the Twenty-First Century

This book was published in 2013. It looks at wealth and income inequality in Europe and the US since the 1700s. Piketty argues that inequality is a natural part of capitalism. He believes it can only be fixed if governments step in. He suggests that if capitalism isn't changed, democracy itself could be at risk. The book became a bestseller. Piketty suggested a "global tax on wealth" as a solution. He received the British Academy Medal for this book in 2014.

Capital and Ideology

Published in 2019, this book follows up on his previous work. It explores how different ideas and beliefs have been used to explain inequality throughout history. Piketty argues that these ideas often help to keep inequality going. He believes that a better standard of living came from social protests, not just from protecting property. The book suggests ways to reduce inequality, like a wealth tax. It also talks about how to get support for such policies.

A Brief History of Equality

This book came out in 2022. It is much shorter than his other books. It is written for general readers, not just economists. In it, Piketty traces the history of equality from 1780 to 2020.

Personal Views

In November 2023, Piketty spoke about fighting climate change. He called for a ban on private jets. He also suggested a progressive carbon tax. This tax would be higher for those who produce more carbon emissions. He said this in response to a report. The report showed that the richest 1% of people cause a lot of carbon emissions.

Selected Works and Publications

In French

• Les hauts revenus face aux modifications des taux marginaux supérieurs de l'impôt sur le revenu en France, 1970–1996 (1998)
• Inégalités économiques: report to the Counsel of Economic Analysis (2001)
• Les hauts revenus en France au XXème siècle, Inégalités et redistribution, 1901–1998 (2001)
• Fiscalité et redistribution sociale dans la France du XXe siècle (2001)
• L'économie des inégalités (2004)
• Vive la gauche américaine ! : Chroniques 1998–2004 (2004)
• Pour un nouveau système de retraite : Des comptes individuels de cotisations financés par répartition (2008)
• On the Long run evolution of inheritance. France, 1820–2050 (2010)
• Pour une révolution fiscale (2011)
• Peut-on sauver l'Europe ? Chroniques 2004–2012 (2012)
• Le Capital au XXIe siècle (2013)
• Capital et idéologie (2019)
• Une brève histoire de l'égalité, Paris: Ed. du Seuil, 2021, 350p.
• Vers le socialisme écologique: Chroniques 2020-2024 (2024)

In English

• Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014)
• About Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2015)
• Carbon and Inequality: from Kyoto to Paris (2015)
• Chronicles: On Our Troubled Times (2016)
• Why Save the Bankers? And Other Essays on Our Economic and Political Crisis (2016)
• Top Incomes in France in the Twentieth Century: Inequality and Redistribution, 1901–1998 (2018)
• Capital and Ideology (2020)
• Time for Socialism: Dispatches from a World on Fire, 2016-2021 (2021)
• "The western elite is preventing us from going after the assets of Russia's hyper-rich" (The Guardian, 2022).
• A Brief History of Equality, Harvard University Press, 2022, 274p.

See Also

• Capital accumulation
• Criticism of capitalism