Thomas Piketty is a French economist who is widely celebrated for his groundbreaking work on wealth and income inequality. He was born on May 7, 1971. Piketty is a professor of economics at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and an associate chair at the Paris School of Economics. Additionally, he serves as the Centennial Professor of Economics at the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics.

Piketty gained international fame with his best-selling book Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2013), which explores wealth concentration and distribution over the past 250 years. The book argues that the rate of capital return in developed countries has consistently been greater than the rate of economic growth, leading to increased wealth inequality. To combat this, Piketty advocates for improved education systems and the diffusion of knowledge and skills.

In 2019, Piketty published Capital and Ideology, which examines income inequality in various historical societies. His 2022 publication, A Brief History of Equality, offers a concise exploration of wealth redistribution aimed at a broader audience.