Interpreting real-world problems, clarifying tradeoffs and applying established economic thinking.
We write about world events and the questions underlying public debate, including growth, wages, housing, public finance, institutional design, education, and international affairs. Where an economic view sharpens the picture, we bring established economic thinking to bear and name the tradeoffs each policy involves.
Our premise is simple: in most public debates there is more to agree about than the argument suggests. Given a fair airing of tradeoffs, disagreement becomes debate, and debate produces better policy.
We publish articles for the careful general reader. Most take a current topic, lay out the questions it raises, present what the evidence shows, and follow the reasoning from source to conclusion in both technical and plain language. Some subjects call for deeper study, and for those we produce original research.
The project’s first study, Net Disposable Income in the United States, Germany, and France, compares household income by quintile after taxes, transfers, and the healthcare, education, and retirement costs households pay for themselves.
Abstract
This study compares household income across the income distributions of the United States, Germany, and France, by quintile. The starting measure is post-fiscal cash income: income after taxes and after cash and near-cash transfers. Three costs that standard measures omit are then subtracted: measured household spending on healthcare, including United States household-paid premiums; measured household spending on education; and a pension-security deduction built from the voluntary retirement saving US households are observed to make through employment-based plans, the private channel toward retirement provision that the German and French mandatory systems finance through contributions already netted out of measured income.
The result is termed Net Disposable Income per equivalent adult at purchasing-power parities built from the prices households pay.
The working paper is published on Zenodo.
Working with us
We seek serious dialogue and welcome thoughtful feedback. We also engage economists and researchers, on a paid basis, to write articles, build studies with us, and serve on the editorial board we are forming. Partners who can carry these ideas to a wider audience are welcome too. If any of that interests you, write to DrewKarazin@thetruepennyproject.org.
Drew Karazin spent over three decades in financial and operating leadership, including two decades at Merck & Co. and as Chief Financial Officer of two publicly traded companies.
At Merck he moved from manufacturing-based research into Treasury, and ultimately served as the senior executive over finance, mergers and acquisitions, information technology, business development, product licensing and strategic planning at a Merck division. He began his career as a research chemical engineer at Chesebrough-Pond’s.
He has also served as chief financial officer at companies in medical devices and retail. Board memberships: venture capital, asset-based financing, housing construction, a professional organization, and a school board. He holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Clarkson University and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Questions, corrections, and expert comment are welcome at DrewKarazin@thetruepennyproject.org.