Some sloppiness but nothing underhand. I wonder why they try to discredit a Piketty?
For his part, Piketty welcomes debate but insists he collected and used the (vast, vast amount of) data accurately. He tells Giles:
As I make clear in the book, in the online appendix, and in the many technical papers I have written on this topic, one needs to make a number of adjustments to the raw data sources so as to make them more homogeneous over time and across countries. I have tried in the context of this book to make the most justified choices and arbitrages about data sources and adjustments. I have no doubt that my historical data series can be improved and will be improved in the future (this is why I put everything online).
He added in a “jovial” email to Irwin:
Every wealth ranking in the world shows that the top is rising faster than average wealth. If the FT comes with a wealth ranking showing a different conclusion, they should publish it!
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/05/thomas-pikettys-capital
