When Thomas Piketty came to speak at the Harvard Kennedy School last month I could not attend due to a class conflict. I later read The Economist 's review titled A Modern Marx , which called Piketty's Capital a "blockbuster" and "a great piece of scholarship", but also "a poor guide to policy". Professors and colleagues kept talking in similar terms until I was finally convinced that I should read it for myself. So, I started reading the book a few days ago. As a student of development economics interested in the evolution of inequality, I am finding it difficult to put the book down. This is not because it affirms my education but because it calls into question the theories predicting a plateauing or lessening of inequality such as the famous Kuznets curve. Piketty explains the Kuznets curve: According to this theory, inequality everywhere can be expected to follow a “bell curve.” In other words, it should first increase and then de...
Economics, Data Science, Consulting