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Baumol's Cost Disease and the Sustainability of the Welfare State

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  • Torben M. Andersen
  • Claus T. Kreiner

Abstract

If productivity increases more slowly for services than for manufactured goods, then services suffer from Baumol?s cost disease and tend to become relatively more costly over time. Since the welfare state in all countries is an important supplier of tax financed services, this translates into a financial pressure which seems to leave policymakers with a trilemma; increase taxes (and hence tax distortions), cut spending or redistribute less. Under the assumptions underlying Baumol?s cost disease, we show that these dismal implications are not warranted. The welfare state is sustainable and Baumol growth leaves scope for Pareto improvements.
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  • Torben M. Andersen & Claus T. Kreiner, 2017. "Baumol's Cost Disease and the Sustainability of the Welfare State," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 84(335), pages 417-429, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:econom:v:84:y:2017:i:335:p:417-429
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/ecca.12221
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    Cited by:

    1. Lars-Erik Borge & Kjetil Hatlebakk Hove & Tobias Lillekvelland & Per Tovmo, 2018. "Cost disease in defense and public administration: Baumol and politics," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 175(1), pages 1-18, April.
    2. Bergh, Andreas, 2016. "The Future of Welfare Services: How Worried Should We Be about Wagner, Baumol and Ageing?," Working Paper Series 1109, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    3. Torben M. Andersen, 2015. "The Nordic welfare model and welfare services - Can we maintain acceptable standards?," Economics Working Papers 2015-02, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    4. Corlet Walker, Christine & Druckman, Angela & Jackson, Tim, 2024. "Growth dependency in the welfare state – An analysis of drivers in the UK's adult social care sector and proposals for change," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    5. Corlet Walker, Christine & Druckman, Angela & Jackson, Tim, 2021. "Welfare systems without economic growth: A review of the challenges and next steps for the field," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    6. Sasaki, Hiroaki & Mizutani, Aya, 2024. "Public Services, Welfare, and Growth under Baumol's Cost Disease," MPRA Paper 121693, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • H5 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies

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