A Quantitative Exploration of the Golden Age of European Growth

Francisco Alvarez-Cuadrado () and Mihaela Iulia Pintea ()

No 805, Working Papers from Florida International University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Income per capita in some Western European countries more than tripled in the two and a half decades that followed World War II. The literature has identified several factors behind this outstanding growth episode, specifically; structural change associated with large migrations from agriculture to nonagricultural sectors, the Marshall Plan combined with the public provision of infrastructure, the surge of intra-European trade, and the reconstruction process that followed the devastation of the war. This paper is an attempt to formalize and quantify the direct contribution of each one of these factors to growth during the European Golden Age. Our results highlight the importance of reconstruction growth and structural change, and point to the limited role of the Marshall Plan, and the late contribution of intra-European trade.

Keywords: Economic Growth; European Economic History 1913-; Computable General Equilibrium Models. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O40 N14 C68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fdg and nep-his
Date: Written
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http://www.fiu.edu/orgs/economics/wp2008/08-05.pdf First version, 2008 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: A quantitative exploration of the Golden Age of European growth (2009)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fiu:wpaper:0805

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