The American Dream Has Now Lived in Scandinavia

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A lot of people point to Scandinavia, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark as countries with policies that the US should adopt. The Danes have been viewed as a model state for social policy. Unlike the US and Denmark, everybody signs up at birth and they end up at depth in the register. So it's a very rich opportunity to study social mobility in Denmark.

Economist and Nobel Laureate James Heckman of the University of Chicago talks about inequality and economic mobility with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Drawing on research on inequality in Denmark with Rasmus Landerso, Heckman argues that despite the efforts of the Danish welfare state to provide equal access to education, there is little difference in economic mobility between the United States and Denmark. The conversation includes a general discussion of economic mobility in the United States along with a critique of Chetty and others' work on the power of neighborhood to determine one's economic destiny.