Source: How Sweden’s Unemployment Became More Like Europe’s, Lars Ljungqvist, Thomas J. Sargent 2010.
Tom Sargent on how jobs are always available
10 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, job search and matching, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, unemployment
Everybody is at least 40% richer than in 1979
10 Mar 2016 1 Comment
in applied welfare economics, economic history, economics Tags: The Great Fact
Inequality is not getting worse and worse says @WJRosenbergCTU!?
09 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, politics - New Zealand, unions
Bill Rosenberg of the Council of Trade Unions is one of many economists who point out that income inequality has not been getting worse and worse in New Zealand since the 1990s. Inequality rose sharply in the late 1980s and early 90s but has remained high but nevertheless stable since then as he says in his 2014 paper of trends in living standards:
This is another symptom of the sharp rise in income inequality between the mid 1980s and mid 1990s, which remains high.
His employer, the Council of Trade Unions when it was denouncing the Employment Contracts Act 1991 as the reason for low wages growth has also drawn attention to the early 1990s as a turning point in the relationship between inequality, union bargaining power and wages growth.
As the Council of Trade Unions showed in the chart it published during the last election campaign, which I snapshoted below and also annotated, from 1970 to 1975 there was rapid real wages growth, well in excess of real growth in per capita GDP. This wages breakout was followed by some ups and downs but essentially wages in 1995 were no higher per hour from what they were in 1975. Real wages were about $24 per hour in real terms in New Zealand for about 20 years – from 1975 to 1995.
There was no real GDP per capita growth from 1975 until 1979 nor in the five years leading up to the passage of the Employment Contracts Act 1991. The period leading up to 1975 wages breakout wages was the zenith of union membership; nearly 70% of all workers belonging to a union. Less than 20% do now and less than 10% in the private sector.
Source: Income Gap | New Zealand Council of Trade Unions – Te Kauae Kaimahi.
After staying at about $24 per hour for 20 years from 1975 to the early 1990s, following the passage of the Employment Contracts Act in 1991, average wages in New Zealand have increased steadily from $24 an hour to about $28 per hour by 2014 in one of the most deregulated labour markets in the world.
As Rosenberg, who is chief economist at the Council of Trade Unions, and the Council of Trade Unions itself pointed out, there were major changes in the New Zealand economy in terms of inequality of incomes and union bargaining power in the late 80s and early 1990s.
These changes referred to by the unions as an erosion of workers bargaining power, brought an end to wage stagnation. Steady real wages growth returned after two lost decades: next to no growth in either GDP per capita or incomes of workers.
Road crash deaths per 100,000 Americans, British, Germans, French, Italians and Swedes since 2000
09 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, transport economics Tags: road safety
Source: Motor Vehicle Crashes in New Zealand 2014 | Ministry of Transport via International Road Traffic and Accident Database.
The Ultimate Resource
09 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, entrepreneurship, growth miracles Tags: The Great Escape
This @amprog conservative antipoverty dictionary does not add up
08 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, labour economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, welfare reform Tags: 1996 US welfare reforms, pessimism bias, social insurance, welfare state
From @EugeneSteuerle: Combined tax rates and creating a 21st century social welfare budget tpc.io/1GCdrYF http://t.co/aNRPqz5gAc—
Tax Policy Center (@TaxPolicyCenter) June 28, 2015
The only alternative offered by the Centre for American Progress is send them on a course. This response, which is the standard policy response to any labour market crisis, will not solve poverty, mush less inequality.
Will more education decrease inequality? A simulation provided an answer. nyti.ms/1xw5m9W http://t.co/paQp19BEWc—
The Upshot (@UpshotNYT) March 31, 2015
@TransportBlog @JulieAnneGenter @GarethMP a lot safe to ride a bike in New Zealand since 1970
07 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, transport economics Tags: bicycles, road safety
Annual social cost of road crashes in New Zealand, 1997-2014
07 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, transport economics
Living standards during the Industrial Revolution
07 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history Tags: industrial revolution, living standards, The Great Enrichment, The Great Fact
The Great Escape comes to Latin America
07 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: Latin America
This @amprog lead in picture and its 1st figure about minimal improvement in living standards in 30 years just does not gel somehow
05 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, economic history, economics of media and culture, industrial organisation, politics - USA Tags: good old days, Leftover Left, pessimism bias, rational irrationality, smart phones, The Great Enrichment
Source: When I Was Your Age | Center for American Progress.
The claim by the Centre for American progress is that despite being more educated and working in a more productive economy, 30-year-olds today barely make more than 30-year-old Baby Boomers did in 1984.
Source: When I Was Your Age | Center for American Progress.
Nearly everything from RadioShack ad in 1991 is replaced by a smartphone. https://t.co/xGh6ZzW1Nx—
Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) December 19, 2015
The apps in your smartphone cost $900,000 thirty years ago —@datarade https://t.co/pjw7q4QGDp—
Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) October 29, 2015
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