The Next Coming Crisis of Capitalism

AuthorSewin Chan
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12370
Published date01 May 2015
Date01 May 2015
Book Reviews
492 Public Administration Review • May | June 2015
Public Administration Review,
Vol. 75, Iss. 3, pp. 492–496. © 2015 by
The American Society for Public Administration.
DOI: 10.1111/puar.12370.
Sewin Chan is economist and associate
professor at New York University s Robert
F. Wagner School of Public Service. Her
research focuses on economic and f‌i nancial
risks facing households, particularly in
employment, pensions, housing, and credit
markets.
E-mail : sewin.chan@nyu.edu
e Next Coming Crisis of Capitalism
omas Piketty , Capital in the Twenty-First Century
(Cambridge, MA:  e Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press, 2014). 696 pp. $39.95,
ISBN: 978-0674430006. Translated by Arthur
Goldhammer.
T homas Piketty has written a remarkable book.
Academic economists sometimes explain
to their colleagues from other disciplines
that “economists don t write books,” but a more
accurate statement might be that “economists don t
read books.” Capital in the Twenty-First Century has
already changed that: many economists have read it,
and almost all the rest should follow their example.
But this is not just a book for economists; it will be
enlightening for all serious readers.
The reason that economists do not read books is that
three broad sorts of books dominate the economics
press: advanced textbooks that can serve the profes-
sional as a reference, books that summarize research
previously published in journals, and finally books
intended to popularize ideas from academic econom-
ics or to promote particular policy agendas. Most
economists would rather read the journal articles than
read the books from the last two categories, and refer-
ence books are not for “reading.
Capital in the Twenty-First Century belongs to none
of these categories, or maybe to all of them at once.
Capital is in part a summary of Piketty s long-term
research program, which has been conducted with a
substantial group of collaborators, yet it is much more
than that. It takes the previously published work,
synthesizes and integrates it, adds important new
analysis, draws out policy conclusions, and presents
all of this in a manner that is accessible to any reader
comfortable with reading graphs and a few simple
equations. Piketty s program of research has long had
many admirers, but Capital demonstrates that the
program is an integrated whole, with a hugely ambi-
tious and important goal: no less than understanding
the centuries-long history of the evolution of capital,
and of wealth and income inequality, and using that
understanding to inform the policy debate for the
twenty-first century. How does one produce a massive
piece of academic economics research that is intelligi-
ble to a general audience? Piketty s answer is to post
online a 100-page technical appendix and all underly-
ing Microsoft Excel and STATA files. He has made
his writing accessible to the world and all his data and
methodology open to the profession, and in doing so
may have created a new form of book for the twenty-
first century.
Capital is a huge work, clocking in at nearly 700
pages, but there is fascinating material throughout
the book that makes it compelling reading. A broad
focus, including insights from literature and history,
adds interest and depth, escaping the aridity of much
academic economics. The writing, as translated from
the original French, is unfailingly clear, if not invari-
ably artful.
Piketty s choice of title is curious. It is clearly intended
to be a provocation by drawing comparison to Das
Kapital —but to what end? Piketty is no Marxist and
the books are radically different. Is he highlighting
the fact that he is working in the tradition of the great
classical economists, as was Marx, or is he draw-
ing comparison to Marx s view of a coming crisis of
capitalism and his own view of a very different sort of
crisis? Unfortunately, the title may ultimately serve as
an unneeded distraction to the serious public consid-
eration that Piketty s work deserves.
Capital is divided into four parts: an introductory
section that sets the stage and deals with definitional
issues, an analysis of the evolution of capital over the
last several hundred years, a history and analysis of the
evolution of income and wealth inequality, and a final
section that discusses policy issues. The inner two sec-
tions form the core of the book.
As noted already, Capital frequently makes reference to
literature, but most especially to the novels of Austen
Sonia M. Ospina and Rogan Kersh, Editors
Sewin Chan
New York University

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