Many studies have shown that wealth inequality is even greater than income inequality and has increased in recent decades. This issue of Policy in Focus is dedicated to wealth taxes, presenting various perspectives on whether they can be an effective instrument for distributive and fiscal...

This paper is about “Capital in the Twenty-first Century” by Thomas Piketty. It identifies his central macroeconomic claims and examines them, arguing that the contentions are theoretically and empirically unwarranted.