Employmentweb_low

EmploymEnT, woRk, and hEalTh inEqualiTiEs - a global perspective
the conference board of canada carries out extensive analyses of national performance on several sets of
indicators: health, health determinants, education and skills environment, society, economy, and innovation
(conference board of canada, 2003; 2006). in their analyses they identify the top 12 performers in each area for
display (table 3) (raphael, 2007).
What is of particular interest is the excellent performance of the social democratic welfare states on the
economy indicators in addition to the health and social indicators (conference board of canada, 2006). all the
social democratic nordic nations do well on the set of economy indicators. these economy indicators include
gdp per capita, gdp growth, productivity growth, unit labour cost, growth, inflation, deficit to gdp ratio,
employment growth, unemployment rate, and long-term unemployment rate. innovation indicators include
spending on research and development, technological cooperation, patents in a range of areas, among
others.
Table 3. national rankings on a range of indicators for selected countries (12 first positions).
health
health
determinants
education and
skills
environment society economy innovation
lIberAl
australia 7 7 11
canada 10 9 3 8 11 12 5
new Zealand 7 7 12 3
UK 6
Us 10 3 3
SocIAl DemocrAtIc
denmark 12 2 5 6 1 10 7
norway 4 3 2 3 4 1 1
sweden 2 1 3 1 3 3 1
finland 7 4 1 3 6 10
source: raphael, d. (2007). poverty and the future of the canadian welfare state. in d. raphael (ed.), Poverty and policy
in Canada: Implications for health and quality of life (table 13.2).toronto: canadian scholars' press.
data adapted from:
conference board of canada. (2003). Defining the Canadian advantage. ottawa: conference board of canada.
conference board of canada (2006). Performance and potential 2005-2006: The world and Canada, trends reshaping our
future. ottawa: conference board of canada.
While it would be expected that the nordic nations would do well on education and skills (e.g., high school
and post secondary completion, reading, science, and math scores, and literacy, etc.), social (social expenditures,
relative poverty, risk of poverty, incidence of low pay, etc.), and health indicators (e.g., life expectancy, premature
mortality, infant mortality, suicide, health care spending and services, etc.), their also excellent performance on
the economy and innovation indicators indicate there is no necessary contradiction between caring for a nation’s
citizens and creating a dynamic and innovative economy. and the very poor performance of the liberal nations
reinforces the views that the policy decisions being made in these nations have an excellent model to emulate.
these findings offer strong support for implementing public policies associated with the social democratic
nations rather than the liberal ones.
references
conference board of canada. (2003). Defining the Canadian advantage. ottawa: conference board of canada.
conference board of canada. (2006). Performance and potential: The world and Canada. ottawa: conference board of canada.
organization for economic cooperation and development. (2005). Society at a glance: 2005 OECD Social Indicators. paris:
organization for economic cooperation and development.
organization for economic cooperation and development. (2006). Society at a glance: 2006 OECD social indicators. paris:
organization for economic cooperation and development.
raphael, d. (2007). poverty and the future of the canadian welfare state. in d. raphael (ed.), Poverty and policy in Canada:
Implications for health and quality of life. toronto: canadian scholars' press.
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