Availability: In Stock

Growing Public: Volume 2, Further Evidence Social Spending and Economic Growth since the Eighteenth Century

SKU: 9780511192708

Original price was: $50.99.Current price is: $24.99.

Access Growing Public: Volume 2, Further Evidence Social Spending and Economic Growth since the Eighteenth Century Now. Discount up to 90%

Additional information

Full Title

Growing Public: Volume 2, Further Evidence Social Spending and Economic Growth since the Eighteenth Century

Author(s)

Peter H. Lindert

Edition
ISBN

9780511192708, 9780521821759

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Format

PDF and EPUB

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.