Some welfare states are much more targeted. Australia has the most targeted welfare state in terms of public social benefits paid in cash to the bottom quintile (Q1) of income earners.
Source: OECD Income Distribution database.
Expected years in retirement by gender in the G7 countries, Australia and New Zealand
19 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: ageing society, demographic crisis, old age pensions, older workers
Source: OECD Pensions at a Glance 2015.
Effective labour market exit age by gender in the G7 countries, Australia and New Zealand
19 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, population economics Tags: ageing society, gender gap, old age pensions, older workers, social insurance, welfare state
Source: OECD Pensions at a Glance 2015.
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Once were Sweden! New Zealand, Swedish and Australian general government expenditure as % of GDP since 1986
12 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, public economics Tags: Australia, growth of government, lost decades, size of government, Sweden
I came across this data showing that New Zealand and Sweden had the same sized public sectors in the mid-1980s some years ago. The data could not be found again for a long time in the OECD statistical databases. One reason was the OECD changed its name to general disbursements.
Data extracted on 12 Feb 2016 08:45 UTC (GMT) from OECD.Stat.
The size of the public sector in Australia has not changed much for 30 odd years. The public sector has been in a long decline in Sweden and New Zealand since peaks as a percentage of nominal GDP in the late 1980s and early 1990s respectively.
I know of no comments on the large size of the New Zealand public sector as measured by general government expenditure in the late 1980s. Its contribution to the stagnant economic growth of that time is worth exploring.
Why Do Politicians All Sound the Same? @BernieSanders
08 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: 2016 presidential election, median voter theorem
@jacindaardern wrong to say Australia is last place to follow in race relations
07 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, discrimination, economic history, law and economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice Tags: Aboriginal land rights, Maori economic development, native title, racial discrimination
From 1965 onwards, 1/3rd of terrestrial Australia – 2.5 million sq kms of land – was returned to indigenous owners, with half of that since the Native Title decision in 1993. Tasmania pioneered aboriginal land rights with the Cape Barron Island Act 1912.
Source: Jon Altman, The political ecology and political economy of the Indigenous land titling ‘revolution’ in Australia, March 2014 Māori Law Review.
New Zealand extinguished native title twice in its history with the 2nd of these takings of Māori land by the last Labour government with the foreshore and seabed legislation. In her op-ed today, has Jacinda Ardern forgotten why the Māori party came into being?
Unlike New Zealand, Australia welcomed migrants from a wide range of ethnicities after the Second World War. It abolished the White Australia policy in the 1960s along with any discrimination in its Constitution against aboriginals.
Australia takes 8 times as many refugees as New Zealand on a per capita basis.
Sweden – the OECD's highest per capita recipient of asylum seekers bit.ly/1vfFEUh http://t.co/y6DmdJjAsE—
Guardian Data (@GuardianData) December 02, 2014
This redress of indigenous grievances was done out of the generosity of the Australian heart. Aboriginals are a tiny minority in Australia with little independent political pull.
US, Danish, British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand tax and social security burden net of cash benefits as a % of labour costs, one-earner married couple with two children since 2000
05 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, public economics Tags: 2016 presidential election, British election, Canada, Denmark, family tax credit, in work tax credit, taxation and labour supply
For some reason the Labour government in New Zealand in the mid-2000s could not bring itself to admit it was introducing a huge tax cut for families. To avoid admitting it ever gave a tax cut, that Labour government called the huge family tax credit introduced in 2004 and 2005 Working for Families.
Source: Taxing Wages 2015 – OECD 2015
The above data does not include the effects of GST and VAT.
@Greens @sarahinthesen8’s solution to boat people drowning
05 Feb 2016 1 Comment
in applied welfare economics, politics - Australia
Source: Another way for refugees | Australian Greens.
Arriving by boat in Australia does not increase the size of the refugee quota. It just changes who gets to the head of the queue and how many died trying to get to the head of the queue.
Source: Kiwiblog.
There is nothing compassionate about rewarding people for risking their lives. The chances of dying while attempting to come to Australia by boat are about 2%.
The recent experience in Europe confirms that just letting large numbers of refugees come to your country hardens the attitude of the majority of voters in that country to admitting refugees in general, much less more than their current quota.
1st and 2nd generation immigrants as percentage of the population
05 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: economics of immigration
@billshortenMP Why @TurnbullMalcolm will back Kevin Rudd for UN Secretary General
05 Feb 2016 1 Comment
in economics of bureaucracy, International law, politics - Australia, Public Choice
What a splendid opportunity! In an Australian election year, Kevin Rudd will be back in the Australian news, frequently front page.
This re-emergence of Kevin747 will remind Australian voters of how dysfunctional he was and how dysfunctional the last Labour government was.
Most of the reporting of Kevin Rudd in the Australian media be about how that control freak and social cripple will bring his dysfunctionality to United Nations and international relations generally.
Bill Shorten must hate the idea. The last thing he wants as an unpopular opposition leader is for the last Labour Prime Minister, who he stabbed in the back as prime minister first time round, to be back in the news.
Mark Latham uses to say that the only reason Kevin Rudd was popular with the Australian people was that never met him.
Aggregated polling – Australian Federal Election
04 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in politics - Australia Tags: Australia, opinion polls
Agricultural subsidies as a % of gross farm receipts in USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand since 1986
02 Feb 2016 1 Comment
in economic history, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: agricultural subsidies, Australia, Canada, cultural economics, Japan
Source: Agricultural policy – Agricultural support – OECD Data.
Agricultural support is defined as the annual monetary value of gross transfers to agriculture from consumers and taxpayers arising from government policies that support agriculture, regardless of their objectives and economic impacts.
But who would be elected president of Australia?
01 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, politics - Australia
The principal argument against the republic is it results in a president as the head of state.
In the last Republican debate in 1999, the Republican movement split between those who wanted an appointed president and an elected president.
An elected president would quickly get ideas above his station because of the popular mandate. Imagine Dick Smith as president.
It would be a good pub quiz game to list the people would be wholly unsuited as president but would be likely to be elected. Boring people such as those who currently occupy the position such as judges and retired military would not have much of a chance of being elected.
The Irish president, for example, is elected but is completely circumscribed in powers. The only power they have to exercise independently is whether to dissolve parliament after a motion of no confidence.
Compulsory superannuation makes a big difference to the size of Australian public sector
01 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in fiscal policy, politics - Australia, public economics
G7, Australian, Danish and New Zealand average personal income tax and social security contribution rates
01 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, public economics Tags: Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Social Security taxes, taxation and labour supply, the dish economy
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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