Ryan Grim — The Economists FT Relied On For Its Thomas Piketty Takedown Don't Buy It

One of the most serious charges leveled by the Financial Times in its high-profile critique of Capital in the Twenty-First Century is that the author, economist Thomas Piketty, was guilty of "cherry-picking data sources" to support his thesis. 

"Sometimes, as in the US, he appears to favour cross-sectional surveys of living households rather than estate tax records. For the UK, he tends to avoid cross sectional surveys of living people," writes Chris Giles, the FT's economics editor.

To support its argument, the FT cited an "independent expert -- who agreed with us, but wants to remain anonymous." But the FT editor and his anonymous expert omitted the context around Piketty's data decisions. And while Giles suggested that Piketty ought to have made different decisions and relied on data put together by other economists, the economists Giles referenced say Piketty's decisions were reasonable.

Whereas Giles says that Piketty "appears to favour cross-sectional surveys" for the US, Piketty himself writes on page 347 of his book that he relied on estate tax records supplemented with survey data....

The Huffington Post
The Economists FT Relied On For Its Thomas Piketty Takedown Don't Buy It
Ryan Grim