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Is an increasing capital share under capitalism inevitable?

Authors :
Ng, Yew-Kwang
Source :
European Journal of Political Economy. Jun2015, Vol. 38, p82-86. 5p.
Publication Year :
2015

Abstract

Piketty's influential book Capital in the Twenty - First Century and its prominent review by Milanovic in the Journal of Economic Literature both assert the inevitability of an increasing share of capital in total income, given a higher rate of return to capital than the rate of growth in income. This paper shows by a specific example, a logical argument and its intuition that the alleged inevitability is not valid. Even just for capital to grow faster than income, we need an additional requirement that saving of non-capital income is larger than consumption of capital income. Even if this is satisfied, the capital share may not increase as the rate of return may fall and non-capital incomes may increase with capital accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
01762680
Volume :
38
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
European Journal of Political Economy
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
102312437
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2015.02.001