Reducing The Rich/Poor Gap Would Grow Our Economy OECD Report Finds. One of our readers ( thanks Katrina) drew my attention to The Washington Post article below commenting on a OECD report released just before Christmas that shows: When income inequality rises, economic growth falls, and THAT has happened in New Zealand at a rate greater than many other OECD countries New Zealands economy could have grown by 44 percent between 1990 and 2010, but the country did only achieve 28 percent growth due to inequality. Hence, it lost 15.5 percentage points -- more than any other country. This is particularly surprising, given that New Zealand was once considered a paradise of equality The OECD explained their findings by pointing out that wealth gaps hold back the skills development of children -- particularly those with parents who have a poorer education background. In other words: A lack of access to high-quality and long-term education among poorer citizens in many OECD countries hurts the economy. In short ..developing policies that distributes the nations wealth more fairly would improve our economy What kind of policies? The OECD experts suggest: Redistribution policies via taxes and transfers are a key tool to ensure the benefits of growth are more broadly distributed and the results suggest they need not be expected to undermine growth. But it is also important to promote equality of opportunity in access to and quality of education. This implies a focus on families with children and youths – as this is when decisions about human capital accumulation are made -- promoting employment for disadvantaged groups through active labour market policies, childcare supports and in-work benefits. You can find the full OECD report here: oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/download/5jxrjncwxv6j.pdf?expires=1420646397&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=20403319BF8948E6CBC71DCB6CA64B3F washingtonpost/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/01/05/how-inequality-made-these-western-countries-poorer #inequality #endchildpoverty #NZeconomics #bryanbruce #OECDreport
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 15:58:01 +0000