Thomas Piketty, the economist who criticized income inequality in a best-selling book, refused to accept France’s highest decoration, saying the nation should focus on reviving economic growth rather than issuing awards.
“It isn’t up to the government to decide who’s honorable,” the 43-year-old professor at the Paris School of Economics told Agence France-Presse. “They would do better to concentrate on reviving growth.”
Founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, the Legion d’honneur is France’s highest honor and recognizes achievements in fields including public service, economics and culture. By turning down the award, Piketty joins a diverse group including writer Jean- Paul Sartre and Maurice Ravel, the composer of Bolero.
Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” published in English last year, tapped into a global debate about inequality. The issue was also raised by Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen in October when she questioned the disparities of wealth and income growth.
Piketty’s call for more to be done to revive France’s economy reflects public anger in a country where the economy is barely growing and unemployment has risen to a record. Jobless claims have increased in all but three months since President Francios Hollande took office in May 2012.
In a sign of the impact of Piketty’s book, which posited that capitalism may permit the wealthy to pull ahead of the rest of society at ever-faster rates, the Financial Times chose it as the Business Book of the Year last month. It beat other shortlisted books including “The Second Machine Age” by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, and “House of Debt” by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi.
Nobel laureate Paul Krugman described the book as a “bona fide phenomenon” and said Piketty’s contribution to economics is “serious, discourse-changing scholarship.”
The study wasn’t without its critics, however, including the Financial Times. Piketty’s work came under fire in an article in May alleging suspect statistics and incorrect calculations. Piketty posted a 4,400-word defense on his website, saying the FT “suggests that I made mistakes and errors in my computations, which is simply wrong.”
Others who have refused France’s Legion of Honor include Pierre and Marie Curie, who received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1903. The Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat who helped the Americans defeat British troops in the War of Independence, also refused several times to be nominated.
About 3,000 people are inducted every year. Four or five people typically turn it down, sometimes as a sign of protest against the government, sometimes to preserve their perceived independence, or because they feel they don’t deserve it, according to the chancery.
“That’s his decision,” French Digital Economy Minister Axelle Lemaire said on France Inter radio today. “Maybe he’s confusing the fact that a Legion of Honor is an award, an acknowledgment from a nation, not support of a government economic policy.”
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