The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress 2002: Towards a Social Understanding of Productivity

In this chapter, Richard Harris points out that a traditional view has been that there is an inherent conflict between economic efficiency and social equality, a view neatly summarized in the title of Okun's famous book, Equality and Efficiency: The Big Trade-off (1975). This view gained renewed currency in the policy debates of the 1990s, as commentators contrasted the economic performance of Europe and the U.S. in that decade. This view has been challenged both by cross-national empirical studies and by theoretical advances. Recent research seems to suggest that there is no efficiency-equity trade-off and that social policy and greater equality may actually contribute to higher productivity growth. Richard Harris surveys two streams of recent research that point in this direction. The chapter also examines new theoretical literature, especially the new endogenous growth theory that suggests that increases in inequality can hurt growth.Equity, Efficiency, Productivity, Labour Productivity, Labor Productivity, Growth, Income, Inequality, Equality, Social Policy, Education, Health, Welfare, Redistribution, Social Cohesion, Cohesion, Investment, Innovation, Competition, Living Standards

Assessment and Management of Anti-insulin Autoantibodies in Varying Presentations of Insulin Autoimmune Syndrome

Context: Insulin autoimmune syndrome (IAS), spontaneous hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia due to insulin-binding autoantibodies, may be difficult to distinguish from tumoral or other forms of hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia including surreptitious insulin administration. No standardized treatment regimen exists. Objectives: To evaluate an analytic approach to IAS and responses to different treatments. Design and Setting: Observational study in the UK Severe Insulin Resistance Service. Patients: 6 patients with hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia and detectable circulating anti-insulin antibody (IA). Main outcome measures: Glycemia, plasma insulin and C-peptide concentrations by immunoassay or mass spectrometry (MS). Immunoreactive insulin was determined in the context of polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation and gel filtration chromatography (GFC). IA quantification using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and radioimmunoassay (RIA), and IA were further characterized using radioligand binding studies. Results: All patients were diagnosed with IAS (5 IgG, 1 IgA) based on high insulin:C-peptide ratio, low insulin recovery after PEG precipitation, and GFC evidence of antibody-bound insulin. Neither ELISA nor RIA result proved diagnostic for every case. MS provided a more robust quantification of insulin in the context of IA. 1 patient was managed conservatively, 4 were treated with diazoxide without sustained benefit, and 4 were treated with immunosuppression with highly variable responses. IA affinity did not appear to influence presentation or prognosis. Conclusions: IAS should be considered in patients with hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia and a high insulin:C-peptide ratio. Low insulin recovery on PEG precipitation supports the presence of insulin-binding antibodies, with GFC providing definitive confirmation. Immunomodulatory therapy should be customized according to individual needs and clinical response

The Politics of Wealth Taxes

While nineteenth-century conservatives feared that the advent of democratic government would lead to a major redistribution of wealth, democracy has proven relatively gentle with the wealthy. This paper analyzes the politics of wealth taxes, drawing on the rights of both the public choice tradition and comparative studies of the politics of redistribution. Net wealth taxes, which exist in approximately half of the OECD nations, are found to be highly dependent on the strength of left political forces; and although wealth transfer taxes exist in most OECD nations, their abolition or erosion in several countries suggests a narrowing of their political base. The paper concludes that a political constituency in favor of increased reliance on wealth taxes in Canada cannot be taken for granted.

Do We Know Where We Are Going? The New Social Policy in Canada

This commentary evaluates the new social policy paradigm, which shifts the emphasis from income redistribution to investment in human capital. Canadian governments have embraced the first side of this approach, restructuring income-security programs in ways that reduce the level of economic security assured to working-age Canadians. But their approach to investing in human capital is weakened by uncertain public commitments, problems of timing and sequence, and a failure to come to grips with the policy implications of the socio-economic gradient in educational attainment. The commentary concludes that education and training are carrying too much weight in new social discourse, and that a successful strategy of investing in human capital cannot be divorced from issues of poverty and inequality. The key challenge is one that is largely being ignored: to design a redistributive complement to a human-capital strategy, one that makes meaningful the promise of education as an instrument of economic security, and compensates for its significant limitations.

Is there really a backlash against multiculturalism policies? New evidence from the multiculturalism policy index

In much of the western world, and particularly in Europe, there is a widespread perception that multiculturalism has ‘failed’ and that governments who once embraced a multicultural approach to diversity are turning away, adopting a strong emphasis on civic integration. This reaction, we are told, “reflects a seismic shift not just in the Netherlands, but in other European countries as well” (JOPPKE 2007). This paper challenges this view. Drawing on an updated version of the Multiculturalism Policy Index introduced earlier (BANTING and KYMLICKA 2006), the paper presents an index of the strength of multicultural policies for European countries and several traditional countries of immigration at three points in time (1980, 2000 and 2010). The results paint a different picture of contemporary experience in Europe. While a small number of countries, including most notably the Netherlands, have weakened established multicultural policies during the 2000s, such a shift is the exception. Most countries that adopted multicultural approaches in the later part of the twentieth century have maintained their programs in the first decade of the new century; and a significant number of countries have added new ones. In much of Europe, multicultural policies are not in general retreat. As a result, the turn to civic integration is often being layered on top of existing multicultural programs, leading to a blended approach to diversity. The paper reflects on the compatibility of multiculturalism policies and civic integration, arguing that more liberal forms of civic integration can be combined with multiculturalism but that more illiberal or coercive forms are incompatible with a multicultural approach