No one can deny that the distribution of income is scandalously unequal in Latin America. But it may come as a surprise to Thomas Piketty’s boosters that inequality in the region has little, if anything, to do with the measured dynamics of income distribution.
SANTIAGO – Few things excite intellectuals of the old Latin American left like a book on inequality written by a Frenchman. So, predictably, Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century has been a big hit. In the two months since the book’s publication in English, many an essay has been penned claiming that the Paris School of Economics professor’s grand oeuvre confirms earlier claims (usually the author’s own) about the perils of inequality in Latin America.
SANTIAGO – Few things excite intellectuals of the old Latin American left like a book on inequality written by a Frenchman. So, predictably, Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century has been a big hit. In the two months since the book’s publication in English, many an essay has been penned claiming that the Paris School of Economics professor’s grand oeuvre confirms earlier claims (usually the author’s own) about the perils of inequality in Latin America.