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

Katherine A. Moos

Review of Radical Political Economics, 2019, vol. 51, issue 4, 581-605

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

Keywords: net social wage; US welfare state; social spending; taxation; tax expenditures (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:51:y:2019:i:4:p:581-605

DOI: 10.1177/0486613419848097

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