Abstract

HERRERA, Rémy  and  ZHIMING, Long. Thomas Piketty's Laws of Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century in China. Econ. y Desarrollo [online]. 2017, vol.158, n.2, pp.6-21. ISSN ISSN.

This paper proposes a statistical method for building capital, after the manner of the French economist Thomas Piketty, for China during a long period (1952-2012), by increasing stock of limited productive, physical capital, with the aim of gradually including inventories and elements not directly concerned with production. This capital is called "stock of global capital" a la Piketty, with an open economic approach being taken. Elasticity of this capital is estimated econometrically by using such parameters as human capital, research and development, and institutional change as a variable, within the framework of modern macrodynamic, neoclassical models. An implicit rate of return on this capital is calculated with the aim of verifying (or not) what Piketty describes as an "inherent inequality". His "economic law" connecting capital coefficient with savings rate-to-growth rate ratio is assessed. Finally, the subject of inequalities in today's China is dealt with.

Keywords : growth; econometrics; economic laws; return on capital.

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