Summary

Piketty begins chapter eleven by considering the role that inheritance plays in the composition of capital, both historically and structurally. He presents the data for long run flows of inheritance in France. This is given as the annual value of inheritance and gifts expressed as a percentage of national income (380). Piketty then explains the two methods possible for collecting this data: fiscal flow, and economic flow (381). Piketty adopts the latter, which can be defined by the accounting identity b_y = μ X m X β, where by represents inheritance as a percentage of national income, μ is the ratio of average wealth at time of death to average wealth of living individuals, m is the mortality rate, and β is the capital/income ratio (383). He then describes how each of these variables could affect inheritance scenarios in the future. He discusses mortality rate (385-7), the aging of...