Pickingon Pikey - Columbia Law School · 2014. 12. 1. · Pickingon Pikey ’ OnSocialStatusandAcademicStanding ’ SachaRaoult Aix.Marseille%Université%|%University%of%Chicago%

Picking on Pike*y On Social Status and Academic Standing

Sacha Raoult

Aix-‐Marseille Université | University of Chicago [email protected]

Preliminaries• I assume you are familiar with PikeDy’s book

§  PosiGve reviews : Krugman, Solow §  CriGcal reviews : Eric Posner, Galbraith §  Meta-‐review :

Fuchs, ChrisGan. "Thomas PikeDy’s Book “Capital in the Twenty-‐First Century”, Karl Marx and the PoliGcal Economy of the Internet." Communica)on, Capitalism & Cri)que. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Informa)on Society 12, no. 1 (2014): 413-‐430.

12/1/14 © SACHA RAOULT, PICKING ON PIKETTY (WORK IN PROGRESS) 2

OutlineA.  Informed Knowledge from Research in Other Areas:

taking a posi)on on a polarizing ques)on in public policy research is itself associated with certain types of academic careers

1.  What’s a polarizing quesGon ? 2.  How do we analyze an academic career ?

B.  Are academic reviews of PikeDy’s “Capital” consistent with this ? 1.  SeparaGng polarizing and non-‐polarizing quesGons in PikeDy reviews. 2.  Is taking a posiGon on polarizing quesGons associated with a certain type of career ?

C.  TentaGve explanaGons of the recurring paDerns


What’s a polarizing ques>on in public policy?

Non-‐polarizing

1 2 3 4 5

Hierarchizing opinions on a given subject along a single dimension The quesGon in not polarizing if the frequency of those opinions follow a Gaussian distribuGon or a slice of a Gaussian distribuGon



Non-‐polarizing



Non-‐polarizing Polarizing


Example of a non-‐polarizing ques>on

0

1

2

4

2

best good mixed bad worst

What's the weather like in Chicago ? (according to Yahoo answers)

15

5

2

bad mixed none

What are the consequences of economic inequality ? (2013-‐2014 academic literature)

Raoult, S. Research Conclusions and Social PosiGon of Academics in Public Policy Research, work-‐in-‐progress


3

1

3

no someGmes yes

Should we ban the burqa in UK ? (according to Yahoo answers)

Example of a polarizing ques>on

Raoult, S. Research Conclusions and Social PosiGon of Academics in Public Policy Research, work-‐in-‐progress

33

13

19

no mixed yes

Does the death penalty deter homicide ? (1969-‐2008 academic literature)


Pike*y book reviews

Trends of growing inequality

r > g Tax policies

Journalists Non-‐polarizing (A) Non-‐polarizing (A) Non-‐polarizing (D)

Academics Non-‐polarizing (A) Polarizing Non-‐polarizing (M)

Others Polarizing Non-‐polarizing (M) Non-‐polarizing (M)


Polariza>on and social posi>ons of academics

Status Death Penalty Polarizing Guns and violence Polarizing Actuarial Methods Polarizing ImmigraGon and crime Polarizing Crime Drop Non-‐polarizing EducaGon Inequality Non-‐polarizing Cons. Of Wealth Inequality Non-‐polarizing

Polarizing Non-‐polarizing

•  SystemaGcally significant differences in career types

•  Predictable paDern

•  No significant differences in career types


Career maps


Scien>fic produc>on


Financial and poli>cal rela>ons


Media presence


Polariza>on and social posi>ons of academics

Status Death Penalty Polarizing Guns and violence Polarizing Actuarial Methods Polarizing ImmigraGon and crime Polarizing Crime Drop Non-‐polarizing EducaGon Inequality Non-‐polarizing Cons. Of Wealth Inequality Non-‐polarizing

Polarizing Non-‐polarizing

•  SystemaGcally significant differences in carreers types

•  Progressives above conservaGves

•  « Mixed » will always track very closely the progressive or conservaGve career type

•  Some evidence of a further divide inside the progressive camp

•  No significant differences in career types


Financial and Poli>cal Support• Contrary to what should be expected from the difference in careers, academics who disagreed with PikeDy’s « r > g » tended to report more financial and poliGcal support Ø Financing of own research by private grants Ø Financing of own research by public grants Ø ConsulGng for private firms Ø ReporGng for public commissions


Tenta>ve explana>ons

•  Career as a proxy for demographics •  Career as an indicator of belonging to certain research communiGes


In Pike*y case, differences in demographics are not significant§ Debate is almost exclusively male § No significant difference in age, although disagreeing academics tend to be younger

§ No significant differences in educaGon, although disagreeing academics tend to have been educated in lower-‐ranked insGtuGons


Career as an indicator of belonging to certain research communi>esq Debate in top schools tends to be more homogeous


Career as an indicator of belonging to certain research communi>esq About half of the PikeDy reviews emanate from the Top 40 schools q The strongest support for PikeDy comes from about half of this group

q Disagreement with PikeDy comes from the other half of this group and from most of the other academics


Career as an indicator of belonging to certain research communi>esq In top schools, the debate tends to focus on the weight to give to certain « oversights » in PikeDy’s work (U.S. supersalaries, assumpGons about savings), whether the author consider these oversights to be detrimental or not to PikeDy’s main point


Career as an indicator of belonging to certain research communi>esq In top schools, the debate tend to focus on the weight to give to certain « oversights » in PikeDy’s work (U.S. supersalaries, assumpGons about savings), whether the author consider these oversights to be detrimental or not to PikeDy’s main point

q In other places, authors tend to reject PikeDy’s approach and offer an alternaGve framework that they believe are beDer fit for PikeDy’s data


Sacha Raoult Aix-‐Marseille Université | University of Chicago

[email protected]


Pickingon Pikey - Columbia Law School · 2014. 12. 1. · Pickingon Pikey ’ OnSocialStatusandAcademicStanding ’ SachaRaoult Aix.Marseille%Université%|%University%of%Chicago%

Documents