Health spending is surprisingly stable outside of the USA. Even in the UK it was a gentle taper upwards.
Source: OECD Health Statistics.
US, UK, Canadian and Danish health spending as % of GDP
10 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, health economics Tags: British economy, Canada, Denmark, health insurance
@BernieSanders MRI rationing – US v. Single-payer UK, Canada and Denmark
05 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - USA Tags: 2016 presidential election, British economy, Canada, Denmark, health insurance, medical rationing, NHS, single-payer, social insurance, universal health insurance
Single payer health insurance systems may have their advantages but one of which is not ready access to an MRI scan in the UK, Denmark or Canada.
Source: OECD Health Statistics.
Remember that those aged over 65 in the USA are covered by Medicare; the poor and welfare beneficiaries are covered by Medicaid; and children of the working poor are covered by CHIPS.
I am told that dogs to get an MRI scan in Canada far quicker than humans. This is because dog owners can pay for the MRI scan. Private health insurance is unlawful in 9 of the 10 Canadian provinces.
There is considerable medical tourism from Canada to the USA, including by politicians who passionately support the single-payer system.
G7, Danish, Australian and New Zealand marginal income tax and social security contribution rates
31 Jan 2016 Leave a comment
in politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, public economics Tags: Australia, British economy, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, social insurance, Social Security taxes, taxation and labour supply
Ordinary French, Germans, Italians and Danish pay much higher marginal tax rates and that is before their high rates of GST.
Data extracted on 30 Jan 2016 03:08 UTC (GMT) from OECD.Stat.
British all-in average personal income tax rates at average wage by family type, 2000, 2007, 2014
28 Jan 2016 Leave a comment
in public economics Tags: British economy, family tax credits, family taxation, in-work tax credits, taxation and labour supply
British, French, German and Italian All-in average personal income tax rates at average wage by family type
23 Jan 2016 Leave a comment
in fiscal policy, macroeconomics, public economics Tags: British economy, France, Germany, Italy, taxation and labour supply
US, UK and Canadian all-in average personal income tax rates at average wage by family type
22 Jan 2016 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA, public economics Tags: British economy, Canada, earned income tax credits, family tax credits, family taxation, taxation and labour supply
US, British and French public and private health spending per capita, PPP since 1995
08 Jan 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, health economics, politics - USA Tags: 2016 presidential election, British economy, France, Health spending
https://twitter.com/PolitiFact/status/678444166016335872
Source: World Bank Health expenditure per capita, PPP (constant 2011 international$) | Data | Table.
500 years of UK energy use
02 Jan 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, energy economics Tags: British economy
British union membership by public and private sector and gender since 1995
15 Dec 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, labour economics, unions Tags: British economy, union membership, union power, union wage premium
British union membership is very much a public sector phenomena. Outside of the public sector, union membership is low but stable for 20 years now.
Source: Office of National Statistics, Trade Union Membership 2014
Where are British taxes spent?
26 Nov 2015 1 Comment
in budget deficits, defence economics, economics of education, fiscal policy, health economics, labour supply Tags: ageing society, British economy, British politics, demographic crisis
White Brits are the ethnic group least likely to go to university
24 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, human capital, labour economics Tags: British economy, College premium, graduate premium, tertiary attainment, university premium
Eurosclerosis, Swedosclerosis, the British Disease and rising inequality harming economic growth
21 Nov 2015 2 Comments
in currency unions, economic growth, economic history, Euro crisis, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, politics - USA Tags: British disease, British economy, Eurosclerosis, France, sick man of Europe, Sweden, Swedosclerosis, Twitter left
The Washington Centre for Equitable Growth have joined the Wall Street Journal in falling for that dodgy OECD hypothesis about rising inequality holding back economic growth.
The chart below shows stark differences between egalitarian Sweden and France, and the more unequal UK since 1970 in departures from a trend growth rate of 1.9% in real GDP per working age person, PPP.
Source: Computed from OECD Stat Extract and The Conference Board. 2015. The Conference Board Total Economy Database™, May 2015, http://www.conference-board.org/data/economydatabase/
In the above chart, a flat line is growth at the same rate as the USA for the 20th century, which was 1.9% for GDP per working age person on a purchasing power parity basis. The USA’s growth rate is taken as the trend rate of growth of the global technological frontier. A falling line in the above chart is growth in real GDP per working age person, PPP, at below this trend rate of 1.9%; a rising line is above trend rate growth for that year.
- Sweden really had been the sick man of Europe until it turned its back on high taxing, welfare state socialism in the early 1990s.
- France has been in a long decline so much so that the global financial crisis is hard to pick up in the acceleration in its long decline in the mid-1990s.
Britain did very well, both under the neoliberal horrors of Thatcherism and the betrayals by Tony Blair of a true Labour Party platform. The UK grew at above the trend annual growth to 1.9% for most of the period from the early 1980s to 2007.
Neither France or Sweden, despite their egalitarian economies, kept up with the US growth rate since 1970. Under the OECD’s hypothesis, if France and Sweden had been more unequal, their trend growth rates would have been even more appalling since 1970.
Productivity and the National Living Wage
21 Nov 2015 1 Comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, labour economics, minimum wage, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, survivor principle Tags: British economy, living wage
A brilliant point by @FlipChartRick in the reblog. What sort of single year labour productivity increase is required to cover a UK living wage increase. Basic arithmetic kills.
A 6.6% annual productivity growth would be required to fund a living wage. This will be far above trend and would be required in sectors such as services that are not at all known for rapid productivity growth because of Baumol’s disease.
A subsequent Twitter exchange updated a key chart to include Australia and New Zealand.
The CIPD and the Resolution Foundation are collaborating on a piece of research into the impact of the National Living Wage (NLW). According to their first study over half of the country’s employers expect to be affected by it. Around a third said they would meet the increased cost by improving productivity and 22 percent said they would take lower profits. Only 15 percent said they would lay off workers or slow down recruitment.
That all sounds promising but, as Matt Whittaker points out, the productivity increase needed to cover the cost of the NLW could be pretty steep. As you might expect, there is a strong relationship between rising minimum wages and rising productivity. Most countries in the OECD have not strayed very far from this line of best fit.
In the absence of any productivity growth, the proposed NLW would move some way from the line (the green circle) by 2016 and…
View original post 565 more words
British post-war productivity growth
17 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, global financial crisis (GFC), labour economics, macroeconomics Tags: British economy, British history
The decline of the British breadwinner – distribution of working hours of married fathers since 1998
16 Nov 2015 1 Comment
in economics of love and marriage, labour economics, labour supply Tags: asymmetric marriage premium, British economy, male labour force participation, marriage and divorce
The number of British fathers in a couple who worked more than 45 hours a week has dropped from about 60% to under 40% since 1998.
Source: OECD Family Database.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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