Those much admired northern European welfare states tax families and individuals much more than do the Anglo-Saxon welfare states.
Source: Taxing Wages 2015 – OECD 2015.
Income tax and social security contributions as a percentage of gross wage earnings in the USA, Britain, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Italy, France, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand
04 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in fiscal policy, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, public economics Tags: Australia, British economy, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, social insurance, Social Security, Sweden, taxation and labour supply
Source: Taxing Wages 2015 – OECD 2015.
Income tax plus employee and employer social security contributions as % of labour costs in US, Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada, Australia, Sweden and Denmark
03 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in fiscal policy, public economics Tags: Australia, British economy, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, social insurance, Social Security, Sweden, taxation and labour supply
@BernieSanders how did Danish, Swedish, Finnish & Norwegian billionaires make their money?
25 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, politics - USA, survivor principle Tags: 2016 presidential election, billionaires, Denmark, entrepreneurial alertness, Finland, inherited wealth, Norway, superstar wages, superstars, Sweden
OK, Nordic billionaire population sizes might be small, but plenty more billionaires make their own money in neoliberal USA than in Bernie Sanders’ Utopia
Public, mandatory & voluntary private social expenditure, G7, Nordics, Australia & New Zealand
20 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, labour economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, welfare reform Tags: British economy, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, social insurance, Sweden, welfare state
Mandatory and voluntary private social expenditure makes a big difference to the degree of social insurance in some countries but not others. The calculation of these numbers in purchasing power parity would be much more interesting.
Source: OECD Income Distribution database.
% social benefits in cash by income quintile, G7, Nordics, Australia and New Zealand
20 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in fiscal policy, income redistribution, labour economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice, welfare reform Tags: British economy, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, social insurance, Sweden, welfare state
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.
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.
Better than Sweden! All-in average personal income tax rates at average wage by New Zealand, Swedish and Danish family type
27 Jan 2016 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, public economics Tags: Denmark, family tax credits, family taxation, in-work tax credits, Sweden, taxation and labour supply
Nordic all-in average personal income tax rates at average wage by family type – corrected
25 Jan 2016 Leave a comment
in public economics Tags: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, taxation and labour supply
Here’s how Scandinavian countries pay for their spending
14 Jan 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, public economics Tags: growth of government, Norway, size of government, Sweden
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.
How Scandinavian Countries Pay for Their Government Spending
20 Nov 2015 1 Comment
in politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics Tags: Denmark, Finland, growth of government, Norway, Scandinavia, size of government, Sweden, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply, welfare state
Equilibrium unemployment rates in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, 1969 – 2017
13 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, unemployment Tags: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden
Equilibrium unemployment rates are creeping up on all Scandinavian countries bar Norway.
Data extracted on 10 Nov 2015 07:07 UTC (GMT) from OECD.Stat.
Why are Scandinavians so thin? Still few overweight Japanese
08 Nov 2015 1 Comment
in health economics Tags: Denmark, economics of obesity, Finland, Japan, Norway, Scandinavia, Sweden
Swedish and Danish top incomes & union decline @FlipChartRick @EconomicPolicy @PoliticalSift
04 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, econometerics, entrepreneurship, labour economics, Public Choice, rentseeking, unions Tags: Denmark, labour surplus, Sweden, top 1%, union power, union wage premium
The Danish top 1% and top 10% is even lazier than their transnational co-conspirators. No success at all at either grinding the Danish unions down or extracting more labour surplus from the long-suffering Danish proletariat.
Source: OECD StatExtract and Top Incomes Database.
Source: OECD StatExtract and Top Incomes Database.
The Swedish top 10% and top 1% have done a bit better since the economic liberalisation in that country from the early 1990s. But none of that additional labour surplus has anything to do with grinding the unions down because Swedish union membership has not declined.
Source: OECD StatExtract and Top Incomes Database.
Source: OECD StatExtract and Top Incomes Database.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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