Capital in the Twenty-First Century (120 page)

The Progressive Tax in the Twentieth Century: An Ephemeral Product of Chaos

The Progressive Tax in the Third Republic

Confiscatory Taxation of Excessive Incomes: An American Invention

The Explosion of Executive Salaries: The Role of Taxation

Rethinking the Question of the Top Marginal Rate

15.
A Global Tax on Capital

A Global Tax on Capital: A Useful Utopia

Democratic and Financial Transparency

A Simple Solution: Automatic Transmission of Banking Information

What Is the Purpose of a Tax on Capital?

A Blueprint for a European Wealth Tax

Capital Taxation in Historical Perspective

Alternative Forms of Regulation: Protectionism and Capital Controls

The Mystery of Chinese Capital Regulation

The Redistribution of Petroleum Rents

Redistribution through Immigration

16.
The Question of the Public Debt

Reducing Public Debt: Tax on Capital, Inflation, and Austerity

Does Inflation Redistribute Wealth?

What Do Central Banks Do?

The Cyprus Crisis: When the Capital Tax and Banking Regulation Come Together

The Euro: A Stateless Currency for the Twenty-First Century?

The Question of European Unification

Government and Capital Accumulation in the Twenty-First Century

Law and Politics

Climate Change and Public Capital

Economic Transparency and Democratic Control of Capital

Conclusion

The Central Contradiction of Capitalism:
r
>
g

For a Political and Historical Economics

The Interests of the Least Well-Off

Notes

Contents in Detail

List of Tables and Illustrations

Index

Tables and Illustrations

Tables

Table 1.1.
  Distribution of world GDP, 2012

Table 2.1.
  World growth since the Industrial Revolution

Table 2.2.
  The law of cumulated growth

Table 2.3.
  Demographic growth since the Industrial Revolution

Table 2.4.
  Employment by sector in France and the United States, 1800–2012

Table 2.5.
  Per capita output growth since the Industrial Revolution

Table 3.1.
  Public wealth and private wealth in France in 2012

Table 5.1.
  Growth rates and saving rates in rich countries, 1970–2010

Table 5.2.
  Private saving in rich countries, 1970–2010

Table 5.3.
  Gross and net saving in rich countries, 1970–2010

Table 5.4.
  Private and public saving in rich countries, 1970–2010

Table 7.1.
  Inequality of labor income across time and space

Table 7.2.
  Inequality of capital ownership across time and space

Table 7.3.
  Inequality of total income (labor and capital) across time and space

Table 10.1.
  The composition of Parisian portfolios, 1872–1912

Table 11.1.
  The age-wealth profile in France, 1820–2010

Table 12.1.
  The growth rate of top global wealth, 1987–2013

Table 12.2.
  The return on the capital endowments of US universities, 1980–2010

Illustrations

Figure I.1.
  Income inequality in the United States, 1910–2010

Figure I.2.
  The capital/income ratio in Europe, 1870–2010

Figure 1.1.
  The distribution of world output, 1700–2012

Figure 1.2.
  The distribution of world population, 1700–2012

Figure 1.3.
  Global inequality 1700–2012: divergence then convergence?

Figure 1.4.
  Exchange rate and purchasing power parity: euro/dollar

Figure 1.5.
  Exchange rate and purchasing power parity: euro/yuan

Figure 2.1.
  The growth of world population, 1700–2012

Figure 2.2.
  The growth rate of world population from Antiquity to 2100

Figure 2.3.
  The growth rate of per capita output since the Industrial Revolution

Figure 2.4.
  The growth rate of world per capita output from Antiquity to 2100

Figure 2.5.
  The growth rate of world output from Antiquity to 2100

Figure 2.6.
  Inflation since the Industrial Revolution

Figure 3.1.
  Capital in Britain, 1700–2010

Figure 3.2.
  Capital in France, 1700–2010

Figure 3.3.
  Public wealth in Britain, 1700–2010

Figure 3.4.
  Public wealth in France, 1700–2010

Figure 3.5.
  Private and public capital in Britain, 1700–2010

Figure 3.6.
  Private and public capital in France, 1700–2010

Figure 4.1.
  Capital in Germany, 1870–2010

Figure 4.2.
  Public wealth in Germany, 1870–2010

Figure 4.3.
  Private and public capital in Germany, 1870–2010

Figure 4.4.
  Private and public capital in Europe, 1870–2010

Figure 4.5.
  National capital in Europe, 1870–2010

Figure 4.6.
  Capital in the United States, 1770–2010

Figure 4.7.
  Public wealth in the United States, 1770–2010

Figure 4.8.
  Private and public capital in the United States, 1770–2010

Figure 4.9.
  Capital in Canada, 1860–2010

Figure 4.10.
  Capital and slavery in the United States

Figure 4.11.
  Capital around 1770–1810: Old and New World

Figure 5.1.
  Private and public capital: Europe and America, 1870–2010

Figure 5.2.
  National capital in Europe and America, 1870–2010

Figure 5.3.
  Private capital in rich countries, 1970–2010

Figure 5.4.
  Private capital measured in years of disposable income

Figure 5.5.
  Private and public capital in rich countries, 1970–2010

Figure 5.6.
  Market value and book value of corporations

Figure 5.7.
  National capital in rich countries, 1970–2010

Figure 5.8.
  The world capital/income ratio, 1870–2100

Figure 6.1.
  The capital-labor split in Britain, 1770–2010

Figure 6.2.
  The capital-labor split in France, 1820–2010

Figure 6.3.
  The pure rate of return on capital in Britain, 1770–2010

Figure 6.4.
  The pure rate of return on capital in France, 1820–2010

Figure 6.5.
  The capital share in rich countries, 1975–2010

Figure 6.6.
  The profit share in the value added of corporations in France, 1900–2010

Figure 6.7.
  The share of housing rent in national income in France, 1900–2010

Figure 6.8.
  The capital share in national income in France, 1900–2010

Figure 8.1.
  Income inequality in France, 1910–2010

Figure 8.2.
  The fall of rentiers in France, 1910–2010

Figure 8.3.
  The composition of top incomes in France in 1932

Figure 8.4.
  The composition of top incomes in France in 2005

Figure 8.5.
  Income inequality in the United States, 1910–2010

Figure 8.6.
  Decomposition of the top decile, United States, 1910–2010

Figure 8.7.
  High incomes and high wages in the United States, 1910–2010

Figure 8.8.
  The transformation of the top 1 percent in the United States

Figure 8.9.
  The composition of top incomes in the United States in 1929

Figure 8.10.
  The composition of top incomes in the United States, 2007

Figure 9.1.
  Minimum wage in France and the United States, 1950–2013

Figure 9.2.
  Income inequality in Anglo-Saxon countries, 1910–2010

Figure 9.3.
  Income inequality in Continental Europe and Japan, 1910–2010

Figure 9.4.
  Income inequality in Northern and Southern Europe, 1910–2010

Figure 9.5.
  The top decile income share in Anglo-Saxon countries, 1910–2010

Figure 9.6.
  The top decile income share in Continental Europe and Japan, 1910–2010

Figure 9.7.
  The top decile income share in Europe and the United States, 1900–2010

Figure 9.8.
  Income inequality in Europe versus the United States, 1900–2010

Figure 9.9.
  Income inequality in emerging countries, 1910–2010

Figure 10.1.
  Wealth inequality in France, 1810–2010

Figure 10.2.
  Wealth inequality in Paris versus France, 1810–2010

Figure 10.3.
  Wealth inequality in Britain, 1810–2010

Figure 10.4.
  Wealth inequality in Sweden, 1810–2010

Figure 10.5.
  Wealth inequality in the United States, 1810–2010

Figure 10.6.
  Wealth inequality in Europe versus the United States, 1810–2010

Figure 10.7.
  Return to capital and growth: France, 1820–1913

Figure 10.8.
  Capital share and saving rate: France, 1820–1913

Figure 10.9.
  Rate of return versus growth rate at the world level, from Antiquity until 2100

Figure 10.10.
  After tax rate of return versus growth rate at the world level, from Antiquity until
2100

Figure 10.11.
  After tax rate of return versus growth rate at the world level, from Antiquity until
2200

Figure 11.1.
  The annual inheritance flow as a fraction of national income, France, 1820–2010

Figure 11.2.
  The mortality rate in France, 1820–2100

Figure 11.3.
  Average age of decedents and inheritors: France, 1820–2100

Figure 11.4.
  Inheritance flow versus mortality rate: France, 1820–2010

Figure 11.5.
  The ratio between average wealth at death and average wealth of the living: France,
1820–2010

Figure 11.6.
  Observed and simulated inheritance flow: France, 1820–2100

Figure 11.7.
  The share of inherited wealth in total wealth: France, 1850–2100

Figure 11.8.
  The annual inheritance flow as a fraction of household disposable income: France,
1820–2010

Figure 11.9.
  The share of inheritance in the total resources (inheritance and work) of cohorts
born in 1790–2030

Figure 11.10.
  The dilemma of Rastignac for cohorts born in 1790–2030

Figure 11.11.
  Which fraction of a cohort receives in inheritance the equivalent of a lifetime
labor income?

Figure 11.12.
  The inheritance flow in Europe, 1900–2010

Figure 12.1.
  The world’s billionaires according to
Forbes,
1987–2013

Figure 12.2.
  Billionaires as a fraction of global population and wealth, 1987–2013

Figure 12.3.
  The share of top wealth fractiles in world wealth, 1987–2013

Figure 12.4.
  The world capital/income ratio, 1870–2100

Figure 12.5.
  The distribution of world capital, 1870–2100

Figure 12.6.
  The net foreign asset position of rich countries

Figure 13.1.
  Tax revenues in rich countries, 1870–2010

Figure 14.1.
  Top income tax rates, 1900–2013

Figure 14.2.
  Top inheritance tax rates, 1900–2013

Index

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, 456–­457

Accounting: national, 55–­59, 92, 230, 269; corporate, 203

Accumulation of wealth.
See
Wealth accumulation

Accumulation principle, infinite, 7–­11, 228

Acemoglu, Daron, 624n20, 639nn45,48

Africa: production in, 60–­61; income and, 63–­64, 66, 68–­69, 586nn33,34; growth
in, 75, 78–­79, 94, 388; capital/income ratio in, 195, 461–­462; taxes and, 491; capital
outflow from, 539.
See also
North Africa; South Africa; Sub-­Saharan Africa

Age-­wealth profile, 393–­399

Agricultural land: in Britain and France, 117, 119; in Germany, 141; in America, 151–­152;
elasticity of substitution and, 222–­223