French economist Thomas Piketty has spurned the Legion of Honour, the country’s highest distinction, on the grounds that the government should not decide who is honourable.

Piketty, author of the bestselling Capital in the Twenty-First Century, which has become compulsory reading for world leaders, added: “They’d be better off concentrating on boosting growth in France and Europe.”

Piketty, 43, made the comments to Agence France-Presse after learning that he had been nominated for the rank of chevalier (knight), which rewards “eminent merit” demonstrated over more than 25 years’ professional activity.

“I don’t believe it’s the role of the government to decide who is honourable,” he said.

Others who received the Legion of Honour in the New Year’s Day announcement included French novelist Patrick Modiano, who won the 2013 Nobel prize for literature.

Piketty is not alone in rejecting the award, which over the years has been turned down by many illustrious personalities including Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. The former leader of the pro-Socialist CFDT union, Edmond Maire, also refused, using similar language to Piketty, saying “it’s not up to the state to decide who is honourable or not”.

In the past, Piketty has described the French president, François Hollande, who on Wednesday night boasted that the government had undertaken “grand reforms” in 2013, as “rather bad.” In his New Year’s Eve message, the Socialist president urged the French to seize the initiative to bring down unemployment while liberalising reforms are implemented. Addressing the business community, Hollande said that “our joint obligation is to fight unemployment”.

In his latest work, the economist addresses the roots and consequences of inequality. He argues that modern capitalism leads to unsustainable levels of inequality, which then undermine the meritocratic values on which democratic societies are based. He says that concentrated wealth will increasingly be in the hands of those who already hold capital in the free-market economies, and warns of potentially explosive social consequences.

Piketty was economic adviser to Hollande’s ex-partner Ségolène Royal in 2007 during her own bid for the French presidency. But during a red-carpet visit to Washington in April he complained that his ideas were better received outside France than in his homeland where he said he received a “narrowly political reception”.

Capital in the Twenty-First Century was named business book of the year for 2014 by the Financial Times, and described by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman as “the most important economics book of the year, and maybe of the decade”.

But the economist’s personal life also made headlines last year. It emerged last May that his former partner, Aurélie Filippetti, now the ex-culture minister, had lodged a complaint with police which led to him being investigated for domestic violence while they were in a relationship in 2009.

• This article was amended on 2 January 2015. An earlier version incorrectly described chevalier (knight) as “the Legion’s top rank”.