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| EST. READ TIME 1 MIN.Average Danes pay high taxes to finance Denmark’s large welfare state
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The Free Enterprise Welfare State: A History of Denmark’s Unique Economic Model
Despite common misperceptions, middle-class workers in Denmark pay relatively high taxes for Denmark’s large government.
Indeed, Denmark has a large welfare state paid for by some of the highest personal income and consumption taxes in the industrialized world.
For example, when they buy goods (e.g. groceries) and services, Danes pay a 25 per cent value-added tax (VAT), similar to Canada’s GST, which is the second-highest among high-income countries.
And Denmark’s top personal income tax rate (57 per cent), which is among the highest in the world, kicks in at a comparatively low level of income—roughly US$91,500 compared to US$176,672 in Canada and US$536,000 in the United States. In other words, it’s not just wealthy Danes who pay the top personal income tax rate.
Finally, according to polling data released in 2023, Canadians overwhelmingly reject higher personal income taxes for the middle class and a higher GST to finance higher levels of government spending.
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Lars Christensen
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Markets & Money Advisory; Associate Professor, Copenhagen Business SchoolLars Christensen is an internationally renowned Danish economist specialising in the international economy, emerging markets and monetary policy. Lars hasover 25 years of experience in government and banking and is the founder and CEO of Markets & Money Advisory and is a Senior Fellow at the United Kingdom’s Adam Smith Institute and an Associate Professor at the Copenhagen Business School. Lars worked for five years as an economic policy analyst at the Danish Ministry of Economic Affairs (1996-2001) and has been head of Emerging Markets research at Danske Bank (2000-2015). He has a master degree in Economics from the University of Copenhagen (1994).… Read more Read Less… -
Matthew D. Mitchell
Senior Fellow in the Centre for Economic Freedom, Fraser InstituteMatthew D. Mitchell is a Senior Fellow in the Centre for Economic Freedom. Prior to joining the Fraser Institute, Mitchellwas a long-serving senior fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he remains an affiliated senior scholar. He is also a senior research fellow at the Knee Regulatory Research Center at West Virginia University.Mitchell received his PhD and MA in economics from George Mason University and his BA in political science and BS in economics from Arizona State University. His writing and research focuses on economic freedom, public choice economics, and the economics of government favoritism.Mitchell has testified before the U.S. Congress and several state legislatures. He has advised federal, state, and local government policymakers in the United States on both fiscal and regulatory policy. His research has been featured in numerous national media outlets, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, and C-SPAN.… Read more Read Less… -
Bacchus Barua
Director, Health Policy Studies, Fraser InstituteBacchus Barua is Director of the Fraser Institute’s Centre for Health Policy Studies. He completed his BA (Honours) in Economicsat the University of Delhi (Ramjas College) and received an MA in Economics from Simon Fraser University. Mr. Barua has conducted research on a range of key health-care topics including hospital performance, access to new pharmaceuticals, the sustainability of health-care spending, the impact of aging on health-care expenditures, and international comparisons of health-care systems. He also designed the Provincial Healthcare Index (2013), co-led the creation of Comparing Performance of Universal Health Care Countries (2016) and co-authored the Fraser Institute’s annual survey of wait times, Waiting Your Turn, for over a decade (2010–2022). In 2022, Bacchus was invited to provide testimony as part of a panel of witnesses for the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health (HESA). Mr. Barua is a frequent commentator on radio and television, and his articles have appeared in well-known news outlets including the National Post, Wall Street Journal, Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, and forbes.com.… Read more Read Less… -
Jake Fuss
Director, Fiscal Studies, Fraser Institute
Jake Fuss is Director of Fiscal Studies for the Fraser Institute. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master’s Degree inPublic Policy from the University of Calgary. Mr. Fuss has written commentaries appearing in major Canadian newspapers including the Globe and Mail, Toronto Sun, and National Post. His research covers a wide range of policy issues including government spending, debt, taxation, labour policy, and charitable giving.… Read more Read Less… -
Paige MacPherson
Associate Director, Education PolicyPaige MacPherson is Associate Director of Education Policy for the Fraser Institute. For many years, Paige has contributed policy analysisand commentary to major media outlets and research organizations across Canada, focusing on education policy, fiscal policy and government accountability. She holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Calgary School of Public Policy and a BA from Dalhousie University. Prior to joining the Fraser Institute, Paige was Alberta Director and Atlantic Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, TV host and politics reporter with Sun Media and provided communications for the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, where she founded a post-secondary student outreach program. Paige’s work has taken her from coast-to-coast-to-coast.… Read more Read Less… -
Mackenzie Moir
Senior Policy Analyst, Fraser Institute
Mackenzie Moir is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Fraser Institute. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing fromYork University and a Master of Science in Health Policy and Research from the University of Alberta. Mr Moir has previous clinical experience and has provided direct care in general medicine, palliative care, cardiology, oncology, and neurology settings. In addition to several academic publications, his commentaries have appeared in University Affairs, the Financial Post, and Globe and Mail. His research focuses on the performance of health-care systems, patient choice, and health-related quality of life.… Read more Read Less… -
Steven Globerman
Senior Fellow and Addington Chair in Measurement, Fraser Institute
Mr. Steven Globerman is a Senior Fellow and Addington Chair in Measurement at the Fraser Institute. Previously, he held tenuredappointments at Simon Fraser University and York University and has been a visiting professor at the University of California, University of British Columbia, Stockholm School of Economics, Copenhagen School of Business, and the Helsinki School of Economics.He has published more than 200 articles and monographs and is the author of the book The Impacts of 9/11 on Canada-U.S. Trade as well as a textbook on international business management. In the early 1990s, he was responsible for coordinating Fraser Institute research on the North American Free Trade Agreement.In addition, Mr. Globerman has served as a researcher for two Canadian Royal Commissions on the economy as well as a research advisor to Investment Canada on the subject of foreign direct investment. He has also hosted management seminars for policymakers across North America and Asia.Mr. Globerman was a founding member of the Association for Cultural Economics and is currently a member of the American and Canadian Economics Associations, the Academy of International Business, and the Academy of Management.He earned his BA in economics from Brooklyn College, his MA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his PhD from New York University.… Read more Read Less…
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