Who enjoys the fruits of growth? Impact of governments and markets on living standards in Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S.A., 1987-1996

Abstract

The 1980s and 1990s have been decades of quite good economic growth in North America and much of Western Europe. But how have the fruits of growth been shared? This paper reviews changing income distributions in the U.S., Germany and the Netherlands. These three countries may be taken as exemplars and leading economic performers in "the three worlds of welfare capitalism" (Esping-Andersen, 1990). The U.S. is a liberal welfare- capitalist state, Germany a corporatist state, and the Netherlands (less clearly) a social democratic welfare-capitalist state. The paper focuses particularly on income changes in the bottom, middle and top quintiles and takes a ten year period into account. Previous a..