@Greenpeace why are German and Danish power prices so high?
24 Dec 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Big Solar, Big Wind, bootleggers and baptists, climate alarmism, Denmark, Germany, green rent seeking, power prices, solar power, wind power
Distribution of the male American, British and German number of working hours
15 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: British economy, compensating differentials, Germany, health insurance, labour force participation, male labour force participation, Obamacare, part-time work, social insurance
Few men work part-time. Many that do are teenagers. Two-thirds of male workers in America, Britain and Germany work at least 40 hours a week and another quarter worked 35 to 40 hours a week except in the USA. A surprising number of Americans, 11%, worked 20 to 29 hours. If they work that 30th hour, the employer must provide them with health insurance under Obamacare.
Source: OECD Family Database.
Eurosclerosis illustrated in the labour market
13 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, Euro crisis, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - USA, public economics Tags: employment law, Eurosclerosis, France, Germany, growth of government, labour market regulation, size of government, taxation and labour supply
Source: Linda Regber.
11 November 1918 was a busy day in Berlin
12 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in political change, war and peace Tags: Germany, World War I
French, German, Italian and British equilibrium unemployment rates, 1968 – 2017
10 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in business cycles, economic history, economics of regulation, Euro crisis, job search and matching, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics Tags: British economy, employment law, equilibrium unemployment rate, Eurosclerosis, France, Germany, Italy, labour market reforms, Margaret Thatcher, Thatchernomics, The British Disease
Unlike the USA, the German, Italian, British and French equilibrium unemployment rates all show fluctuations that reflect changes in their underlying economic circumstances and labour market reforms. The case of the British, the rise of the British disease and Thatchernomics. The case of German, its equilibrium unemployment rate rose after German unification and then fell after the labour market reforms of 2002 to 2005.
Source: OECD Economic Outlook November 2015 Data extracted on 10 Nov 2015 07:07 UTC (GMT) from OECD.Stat.
We should never forget Peter Fechter & the 253 others who died at the Berlin Wall
10 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: Berlin wall, fall of communism, Germany
Where is the Berlin Wall now?
07 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in entrepreneurship, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: Berlin, entrepreneurial alertness, fall of berlin wall, fall of communism, Germany
Where on Earth is the Berlin wall? theguardian.com/cities/2014/oc… http://t.co/gE493huA8z—
Alberto Nardelli (@AlbertoNardelli) October 28, 2014
German, French and Italian real housing prices since 1975
19 Oct 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economic history, economics of regulation, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: France, Germany, housing affordability, housing prices, Italy, land supply, land use planning, zoning
Source and notes: International House Price Database – Dallas Fed June 2015; nominal housing prices for each country is deflated by the personal consumption deflator for that country.
The territorial evolution of #Germany from 1867
21 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, war and peace Tags: economics of borders, Germany, World War I, World War II
No Generation Rent in #Deutschland! Real housing prices in #Germany, #France & #Italy since 1975
14 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, urban economics Tags: France, Generation Rent, Germany, housing affordability, housing prices, Italy, land supply, land use planning, NIMBYs, zoning
Source: International House Price Database – Dallas Fed
Note: The house price index series is an index constructed with nominal house price data. The real house price index is an index calculated by deflating the nominal house price series with a country’s personal consumption expenditure deflator.
Vanishing effect of #religion on the labour market participation of European women
19 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of religion, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: female labour force participation, female labour supply, France, gender gap, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Turkey
Vanishing effect of #religion on the labor market participation of European women newsroom.iza.org/en/2015/08/10/… http://t.co/25nx8NiEfk—
IZA (@iza_bonn) August 10, 2015
% of unemployment that is more than 12 months, USA, UK, Germany and France
14 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in currency unions, Euro crisis, job search and matching, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, unemployment Tags: British economy, equilibrium unemployment rate, France, Germany, long-term unemployment, natural unemployment rate, social insurance, unemployment duration, unemployment insurance, welfare state
As the British labour market and long-term unemployment was starting to get something like that in the USA, the USA started to have unemployment it was more like the European labour markets in terms of the number of long-term unemployed. Nothing much happened in Germany and France.
Source: OECD StatExtract.
Union density rates in Germany, France and Italy
14 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, Euro crisis, labour economics, unions, urban economics Tags: Eurosclerosis, France, German unification, Germany, Italy, union membership, union power, union wage premium
There are large differences in unionisation rates between the three countries. France has always had low levels of unionisation which halved since the 1970s. Italy had a sharp boost in union membership in the number of unions in the 1960s and 70s. This may have been associated with increased urbanisation. Union membership rate stayed pretty high in Italy ever since with a small taper downwards. Germany had stable unionisation rates prior to German unification after which the numbers about halved up in a slow taper.
Source: OECD Stat Extract.
German unemployment incidence by duration since 1983
11 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, Euro crisis, fiscal policy, job search and matching, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, unemployment, welfare reform Tags: equilibrium unemployment rate, Eurosclerosis, German unification, Germany, natural unemployment rate, poverty traps, unemployment duration, unemployment insurance, welfare state
German long term unemployment has been pretty stable albeit with an up-and-down after German unification. There is also a fall in long-term unemployment after some labour market reforms around 2005.
Source: OECD StatExtract.
How @equitablegrowth showed inequality helps growth when arguing inequality harms growth
10 Aug 2015 1 Comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, currency unions, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, Euro crisis, fiscal policy, global financial crisis (GFC), income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: British disease, entrepreneurial alertness, Eurosclerosis, France, German unification, Germany, growth of government, sick man of Europe, social insurance, Sweden, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply, welfare state
The Washington Centre for Equitable Growth recently tweeted that inequality harms growth in the USA as compared to Sweden, France, Germany and the UK. It was relying on some dodgy OECD research.
.@OECD sees continued rise in growth-harming inequality, reports @PaulHannon29 on.wsj.com/1EZpq1S http://t.co/xt4heZysXT—
Equitable Growth (@equitablegrowth) May 21, 2015
The Washington Centre for Equitable Growth did not check their inequality ratios they tweeted against trends in economic growth and economic policy since 1970, which I have reproduced in figure 1. Germany is not included in figure 1 because German data on growth is thrown askew by German unification.
Figure 1: Real GDP per British, French and Swede aged 15-64, 2014 US$ (converted to 2014 price level with updated 2011 PPPs), 1.9 per cent detrended, 1970-2013
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/
Figure 1 shows that France has been in a long-term decline since the late 1970s despite the blessings of a more equal society than the USA as championed by the Washington Centre for Equitable Growth. In figure 1, a flat line is growth in real GDP per working age person, PPP, at the same rate as the USA for the 20th century, which was 1.9% per year. A falling line in figure 1 indicates growth of less than 1.9% while a rising line indicates growth in real GDP per working age person, PPP, in excess of 1.9%. In figure 1, France hardly ever grew at the trend rate of growth for the USA of 1.9% per year and was frequently well below that rate.
Sweden tells a slightly different story in figure 1 because of regime change in the early 1990s when Sweden adopted more liberal economic policies where taxes and government spending were reduced:
The rapid growth of the state in the late 1960s and 1970s led to a large decline in Sweden’s relative economic performance. In 1975, Sweden was the 4th richest industrialised country in terms of GDP per head. By 1993, it had fallen to 14th.
@alexvoronov använda smygfinansiering av Generell Välfärd är alltid av ondo. @NimaSanandaji: bit.ly/1Nar2eV http://t.co/wD0YEgncIE—
Old Whig (@aClassicLiberal) August 05, 2015
That regime change reversed a long economic decline since 1970 under the egalitarian policies of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. Under the Swedish Social Democratic Party, Sweden was almost always growing at less than the trend rate of growth of the USA, which was 1.9%. That position reversed only when there was a turn away from big government and high taxes.
Figure 1 tells a similar story for the British economy: a long economic decline in the 1970s when Britain was the sick man of Europe. Under Thatchernomics, Europe had a long economic boom for 20 years or more – see figure 1.
In the 1970s, under the high taxes of the Heath, Callaghan and Wilson administrations, as figure 1 shows, Britain was the sick man of Europe. With the election of the Thatcher Government, Britain soon grew at better than the US trend growth rate for nearly 20 years through few exceptions.
Graph of the Day: The UK has among the lowest total tax rates on businesses in the G7 http://t.co/l6mMhN9yLD—
CPS Think Tank (@CPSThinkTank) August 04, 2015
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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