Thomas Piketty’s book “Capital in the 21st Century” was a big hype in economic circles last year. While some consider it to be the best book on inequality ever written, others have vigorously attacked its author for having preconceived political views. Willem Cornax and Dion Reijnders will discuss Piketty’s theoretical framework during a lecture to be held in the Karl Dittrich Hall (SSC) on Thursday 23 April, 19.30.
Lecture:
The impact of “Capital in the 21st Century” on public debate has been remarkable for a 685-page book on economic theory. Yet, the number of summaries that have appeared and the nature of the public debate suggest that not many people have actually read and analyzed the book. Instead, people have criticized the data work, questioned the relevance for other countries, and attacked or supported its conclusions from preconceived political views.
A lecture organised by university students will ask whether Piketty’s theoretical framework is sound and whether his policy recommendations are actually capable of reducing inequality. So we will accept Piketty’s claim that over the past decades economic inequality in the (Western) world has grown in general, and question whether Piketty’s identification of its causes is correct and whether his solutions are indeed capable of reversing this general trend towards more economic inequality.
This lecture will be presented by Willem Cornax & Dion Reijnders. They published “De armoede van economische gelijkheid” in December 2014, which is a translated essay by George G. Reisman which analyzes Piketty’s theoretical framework and proposes interesting solutions for the problems identified by Piketty.
Speakers:
Dion has a Master’s Degree in Financial Economics from Maastricht University and is an external PhD candidate at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and is co-translator of the upcoming Dutch version of Ludwig von Mises’s Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. Willem (LLB) is currently studying Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law at Leiden University. He writes occasionally for the Mises Institute in the U.S and here in the Netherlands, is co-organizer of the Austrian Economics Meeting Europe (AEME) and is currently doing research into the history of economic thought in the Netherlands.
