Growing public : social spending and economic growth since the eighteenth century

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Growing public : social spending and economic growth since the eighteenth century

Peter H. Lindert

Cambridge University Press, 2004

  • v. 1 : hbk
  • v. 1 : pbk
  • v. 2
  • v. 2 : pbk

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Note

v. 1. The story -- v. 2. Further evidence

Includes bibliographical references and indexes

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

v. 1 : pbk ISBN 9780521529167

Description

Growing Public examines the question of whether social policies that redistribute income impose constraints on economic growth. Taxes and transfers have been debated for centuries, but only now can we get a clear view of the whole evolution of social spending. What kept prospering nations from using taxes for social programs until the end of the nineteenth century? Why did taxes and spending then grow so much, and what are the prospects for social spending in this century? Why did North America become a leader in public education in some ways and not others? Lindert finds answers in the economic history and logic of political voice, population aging, and income growth. Contrary to traditional beliefs, the net national costs of government social programs are virtually zero. This book not only shows that no Darwinian mechanism has punished the welfare states, but uses history to explain why this surprising result makes sense. Contrary to the intuition of many economists and the ideology of many politicians, social spending has contributed to, rather than inhibited, economic growth.

Table of Contents

  • Part I. Overview: 1. Patterns and puzzles
  • 2. Findings
  • Part II. The Rise of Social Spending: 3. Poor relief before 1880
  • 4. Interpreting the patterns of early poor relief
  • 5. The rise of mass public schooling before 1914
  • 6. Public schooling in the twentieth century: what happened to American leadership?
  • 7. Explaining the rise of social transfers since 1880
  • Part III. Prospects for Social Transfers: 8. The public pension crisis
  • 9. Social transfers in the second and third worlds
  • Part IV. What Effects on Economic Growth?: 10. Keys to the free-lunch puzzle
  • 11. On the well-known demise of the Swedish Welfare State
  • 12. How the keys were made: democracy and cost control.
Volume

v. 2 : pbk ISBN 9780521529174

Description

Growing Public examines the question of whether social policies that redistribute income impose constraints on economic growth. What kept prospering nations from using taxes for social programs until the end of the nineteenth century? Why did taxes and spending then grow so much, and what are the prospects for social spending in this century? Why did North America become a leader in public education in some ways and not others? Lindert finds answers in the economic history and logic of political voice, population ageing, and income growth. Contrary to traditional beliefs, the net national costs of government social programs are virtually zero. This book not only shows that no Darwinian mechanism has punished the welfare states, but uses history to explain why this surprising result makes sense. Contrary to the intuition of many economists and the ideology of many politicians, social spending has contributed to, rather than inhibited, economic growth.

Table of Contents

  • Part V. The Underlying Framework: 13. A minimal theory of social transfers
  • 14. A guide to the tests
  • Part VI. Accounting for Social Spending, Jobs and Growth: 15. Explaining the rise of mass public schooling
  • 16. Explaining the rise of social transfers
  • 17. What drove postwar social spending?
  • 18. Social transfers hardly affected growth
  • 19. Reconciling unemployment and growth in the OECD
  • Appendices.
Volume

v. 1 : hbk ISBN 9780521821742

Description

Growing Public examines the question of whether social policies that redistribute income impose constraints on economic growth. Taxes and transfers have been debated for centuries, but only now can we get a clear view of the whole evolution of social spending. What kept prospering nations from using taxes for social programs until the end of the nineteenth century? Why did taxes and spending then grow so much, and what are the prospects for social spending in this century? Why did North America become a leader in public education in some ways and not others? Lindert finds answers in the economic history and logic of political voice, population aging, and income growth. Contrary to traditional beliefs, the net national costs of government social programs are virtually zero. This book not only shows that no Darwinian mechanism has punished the welfare states, but uses history to explain why this surprising result makes sense. Contrary to the intuition of many economists and the ideology of many politicians, social spending has contributed to, rather than inhibited, economic growth.

Table of Contents

  • Part I. Overview: 1. Patterns and puzzles
  • 2. Findings
  • Part II. The Rise of Social Spending: 3. Poor relief before 1880
  • 4. Interpreting the patterns of early poor relief
  • 5. The rise of mass public schooling before 1914
  • 6. Public schooling in the twentieth century: what happened to American leadership?
  • 7. Explaining the rise of social transfers since 1880
  • Part III. Prospects for Social Transfers: 8. The public pension crisis
  • 9. Social transfers in the second and third worlds
  • Part IV. What Effects on Economic Growth?: 10. Keys to the free-lunch puzzle
  • 11. On the well-known demise of the Swedish Welfare State
  • 12. How the keys were made: democracy and cost control.
Volume

v. 2 ISBN 9780521821759

Description

Growing Public examines the question of whether social policies that redistribute income impose constraints on economic growth. What kept prospering nations from using taxes for social programs until the end of the nineteenth century? Why did taxes and spending then grow so much, and what are the prospects for social spending in this century? Why did North America become a leader in public education in some ways and not others? Lindert finds answers in the economic history and logic of political voice, population ageing, and income growth. Contrary to traditional beliefs, the net national costs of government social programs are virtually zero. This book not only shows that no Darwinian mechanism has punished the welfare states, but uses history to explain why this surprising result makes sense. Contrary to the intuition of many economists and the ideology of many politicians, social spending has contributed to, rather than inhibited, economic growth.

Table of Contents

  • Part V. The Underlying Framework: 13. A minimal theory of social transfers
  • 14. A guide to the tests
  • Part VI. Accounting for Social Spending, Jobs and Growth: 15. Explaining the rise of mass public schooling
  • 16. Explaining the rise of social transfers
  • 17. What drove postwar social spending?
  • 18. Social transfers hardly affected growth
  • 19. Reconciling unemployment and growth in the OECD
  • Appendices.

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