ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the implications of reconciling the inclusive wealth approach of E. B. Barbier to adjusting net income and savings for natural capital depreciation with Thomas Piketty's method of estimating long-run trends in wealth-income ratios. Piketty argues that rising wealth and income inequality is attributed to several important features in the pattern of wealth accumulation in the world economy. The World Bank's World Development Indicators contain time-series of the value of net natural resource depletion, net national saving rates and adjusted net national income from 1970 to 2014 for most countries of the world. The chapter examines the resulting implications for net wealth accumulation and inequality that have been observed by Piketty and other studies. It shows the key trends that lead Piketty to conclude that inequality has been worsening in the major rich countries and the global economy.
