Growing public : social spending and economic growth since the eighteenth century. Volume 1, The story / Peter H. Lindert. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lindert, Peter H., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Government spending policy--History--Case studies.

Government spending policy.

Income distribution--History--Case studies.

Income distribution.

Transfer payments--History--Case studies.

Transfer payments.

Welfare economics--History--Case studies.

Welfare economics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 377 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

v. 1. Part 1: Overview

Patterns and puzzles

Findings

Part 2: The rise of social spending

Poor relief before 1880

Interpreting the patterns of early poor relief

The rise of mass public schooling before 1914

Public schooling in the twentieth century : what happened to U.S. leadership?

Explaining the rise of social transfers since 1880

Part 3: Prospects for social transfers

The public pension crisis

Social transfers in the second and third worlds

Part 4: What effects on economic growth?

Keys to the free-lunch puzzle

On the well-known demise of the Swedish welfare state

How the keys were made : democracy and cost control.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-14568-6

1-107-71368-4

1-280-43739-1

0-511-16549-8

0-511-16625-7

0-511-16432-7

0-511-30282-7

0-511-51071-3

0-511-16512-9

OCLC:

171138292