Review: Piketty, Thomas (2014). El capital en el siglo XXI. Mexico: FCE. Thomas Piketty, a mainstream economist?

Abstract

A common joke in the corridors of economics faculties goes like this: an economist’s academic life is divided into two parts; the first tries to explain how their theory could solve current problems, and the second explains why their theory did not work. It may be considered a bad joke, yet it perfectly reflects the life of most economists. But what kind of economists does this reflection include? J. M. Keynes called them mainstream economists (a term for economic orthodoxy), but Lord Keynes also conducted his academic life in this way.