Morten Jerven Morten Jerven

Is the FT Nit-Piketty?

The saga on the data problems in Piketty's book continues. Giles responds to the debate that has been unfolding, and notes that the academic community has as a whole been rather forgiving of Piketty, but that in Giles' view: Academic economists have got themselves...
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Economic data ‘came out of thin air’

No, this is not another reflection from my research on economic data on African economies, but the allegations by Chris Giles in the Financial Times against the inequality data used in Thomas Piketty's bestselling book. Giles shows that Piketty has indeed made some questionable...
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Reviews of Poor Numbers

It takes a little while, about a year, between publication and when academic reviews start appearing. Andrew Jack at the Financial Times was early with a review of the book before it was published, and Bill Gates similarly asked for a pre-publication copy of...
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Africa at Dawn

That's the title of a recent editorial in the Financial Times. The editorial recounts the recent data debates. Most importantly, the FT editorial highlights how important it is to debate data openly and freely and this  is in African countries' interest . Referring to...
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