Wednesday, May 25, 2011

High Taxes and Income Growth


Michael Boskin is comparing the US, Canada, the UK and France in a Project-Syndicate post.

Excerpt:

“Real per capita income in the US is bout 40%nhigher than in France, 22% higher than in Canada, and 31% higher than in Great Britain.”

Relative histories of taxing and spending matter, he writes, to explain these shifting differences:

“ … the US advantage over France has expanded from 25% to 40% since 1980, a period in which the share of government spending in GDP was stabilized in the US (until recently), while it grew substantially in France. Likewise, French real per capita GDP exceeded the UK level in 1980, but was overtaken in 2000, and by 2007 lagged the UK by about 10%. These differences are the equivalent of an entire generation of economic progress.”

Read the post here .

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