Thomas Piketty attributes increasing wealth inequality to the characteristics of a neoclassical aggregate production function, which is known not to exist. A more plausible narrative is that wage repression can lead to secular stagnation by enriching the rentier. Lower economic activity...

This note examines Thomas Piketty’s (2014) explanation and prediction of simultaneously rising capital income ratio and profit share by an elasticity of substitution, σ, greater than one between labor and capital in an aggregate production function. Semieniuk reviews Piketty’s elasticity...

This note examines Thomas Piketty's (2014) explanation and prediction of simultaneously rising capital income ratio and profit share by an elasticity of substitution, sigma, greater than one between labor and capital in an aggregate production function. I review Piketty's elasticity argument,...