Piketty,Saez and Zucman's Contributions to Researches on Inequality
Piketty,Saez and Zucman have profoundly impacted the field of income and wealth inequality through their analyses of extensive historical data.They have jointly been named the 2023's Citation Laureates in Economics for their research on income and wealth distribution by Clarivate,predicting that they may be win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in the future.Their influential studies on economic inequality have significantly advanced people's understanding of this issue,providing extensive data support,profound theoretical insights,and tangible impacts on economic policy-making.This paper aims to outline their main achievements in inequality research,including the establishment of an inequality database,the analysis of long-term inequality trends,the exploration of the causes and mechanisms of inequality evolution,and the study of methods and strategies to address inequality issues.The paper begins by introducing the backgrounds of Piketty,Saez and Zucman,and outlines their collaborative achievements in the long-term analyses of income and wealth distribution.They have worked together for a long time on inequality issues and the impact of tax policies,laying the foundation for using tax data to study inequality issues.They have developed a method that can distribute almost all types of national income across different income groups.They advocate for the imposition of a progressive global wealth tax to address the increasingly severe problem of wealth inequality.Next,this paper details Piketty,Saez and Zucman's achievements in building a comprehensive database on income and wealth distribution.Relying on a wide range of historical data,Piketty,Saez and Zucman have created a detailed dataset covering multiple countries.By integrating national accounts,household surveys,tax records,and historical administrative data,they have successfully constructed a long-term series of income and wealth distribution.Applying uniform principles and methodologies,they have enabled meaningful international comparisons,providing significant support for a deeper understanding of long-term income and wealth inequality on a global scale.This paper then summarizes Piketty,Saez and Zucman's empirical research findings.Based on extensive historical data,they studied the long-term trends of income and wealth inequality in most countries,finding that inequality usually follows a U-shaped curve,worsening at the beginning of the 20th century,decreasing after the Second World War,and then rising again after the 1980s.The intensification of inequality is mainly driven by the trend of capital return rates consistently exceeding economic growth rates.Their research challenges previous assumptions and provides new evidence on long-term inequality trends.Additionally,this paper explores Piketty's theoretical model of capital accumulation and the dynamics of income and wealth distribution in capitalist societies.Based on empirical analyses,he proposed three"fundamental laws"of capitalism,explaining the long-term trends of inequality and their impact on society.This lays the foundation for understanding the dynamics of inequality under capitalism and formulating policies to curb the rise of inequality.The paper continues to explore Piketty,Saez and Zucman's innovative contributions in quantifying the top-income and wealth shares and developing the distributive national accounts framework.They focus on analyzing top income shares using tax data,providing a unique perspective that household surveys cannot offer.Their concept of"distributive national accounts"aims to distribute almost all national income across different income percentiles,changing the research landscape in this field.The paper also discusses Piketty,Saez and Zucman's views on the role of tax policy in mitigating inequality issues.They note that the progressivity of global tax systems has gradually weakened,while the income proportion of high-income groups has been rising.They emphasize the importance of implementing a progressive tax system to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor.Finally,this paper points out the limitations of the work of Piketty,Saez and Zucman,while emphasizing their profound and lasting impact on the field of inequality.They have fundamentally changed research methods and policy debates around inequality issues,advancing the understanding of inequality problems.
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