Has Thomas Piketty's famous book Capital in the 21st Century been refuted by a 26-year-old graduate student? Not really.
The student in question, Matt Rognlie of MIT, has published a paper titled "Deciphering the Fall and Rise in the Net Capital Share" that adds valuable depth and context to the discussion on wealth that Piketty inaugurated. The paper's genesis is also a heck of a good story, ably related by Jim Tankersley; it will, Tankersley notes, "almost certainly be the first paper at the prestigious Brookings Papers on Economic Activity that was commissioned based on a blog comment."
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