Abstract

MATEO, Juan Pablo. Theoretical foundations and economic laws in Piketty's Capital: A critical analysis. Cuad. Econ. [online]. 2017, vol.36, n.70, pp.227-249. ISSN 0121-4772.  https://doi.org/10.15446/cuad.econ.v36n70.58697.

The article conducts a critical analysis, from a political economy approach, into the theoretical model proposed in Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the Twenty-First Century". It highlights several inconsistencies in the causal relationships that Piketty establishes to justify the existence of fundamental laws of capitalism. We conclude that these relationships constitute forces that operate in the same space, and have been developed from psychological, technical, and scarce-related elements. They are also a result of a series of questionable assumptions about the savings rate, the elasticity of substitution, economic growth, and certain exceptions to the theory of marginal productivity.

JEL: B22, B40, E20, O40.

Keywords : Piketty; economic law; income distribution; profitability; growth.

        · abstract in Spanish | French | Portuguese     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )