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Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics used in everyday life

Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life

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More or Less: The Piketty Affair

Factual

The Piketty Affair

30/05/2014

BBC Radio 4 - More or Less, The Piketty Affair

Did French economist Thomas Piketty get his numbers wrong?

Is the Financial Times right to claim that French economist Thomas Piketty got his numbers wrong?

Did 'rock-star' French economist Thomas Piketty get his numbers wrong? His theories about rising inequality and the increasing importance of capital have been the talk of the economic and political worlds this year. And part of their appeal has been the massive amount of data Piketty has brought together to back them.

But the Financial Times claims to have found significant problems with Piketty's data on wealth, and says this undermines his claims about rising inequality. Tim Harford examines the FT's claims and Thomas Piketty's response.

Is there any truth to the catchy 'statistic' doing the rounds that there's as much land given over to golf courses as housing in England. More or Less gets out the tape measure and sizes up the country's fairways and putting greens, its rooftops and gardens to find out.

And we examine two stories in the news this week - is racism on the rise in Britain, and should we be concerned that several young men who have died recently were players of the video game Call of Duty?

(Image:  Best Selling Economist Author Thomas Piketty Speaks At UC Berkeley. Credit: Getty Images)

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