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Neoliberal Redistributive Policy: The US Net Social Wage in the Early Twenty-First Century

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  • Katherine A. Moos

Abstract

This paper estimates the net social wage—the difference between labor benefits and labor taxation—from 1959 to 2012 in the United States using two different methodologies. During this period the average NSW 1 /GDP and NSW 2 /GDP ratio are 1.3 and −3.8 percent, respectively. This paper finds a deviation in the net social wage data starting in 2002, suggesting greater redistribution to US workers in the early twenty-first century than in the twentieth century. This paper argues that the increase in the US net social wage in the early twenty-first century is being caused by a combination of cyclical, structural, and secular factors. US redistributive policy should be understood as stabilizing and subsidizing the social reproduction of labor. JEL Classification: H5, E62, B5

Suggested Citation

  • Katherine A. Moos, 2019. "Neoliberal Redistributive Policy: The US Net Social Wage in the Early Twenty-First Century," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 51(4), pages 581-605, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:51:y:2019:i:4:p:581-605
    DOI: 10.1177/0486613419848097
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Peter Flaschel & Sigrid Luchtenberg & Hagen Kramer & Christian Proano & Mark Setterfield, 2021. "Contemporary Macroeconomic Outcomes: A Tragedy in Three Acts," Working Papers 2105, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    net social wage; US welfare state; social spending; taxation; tax expenditures;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H5 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • B5 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches

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