Understanding West German economic growth in the 1950s

Barry Eichengreen and Albrecht Ritschl

Economic History Working Papers from London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History

Abstract: We evaluate explanations for why Germany grew so quickly in the 1950s. The recent literature has emphasized convergence, structural change and institutional shake-up while minimizing the importance of the post-war shock. We show that this shock and its consequences were more important than neoclassical convergence and structural change in explaining the rapid growth of the West German economy in the 1950s. We find little support for the hypothesis of institutional shakeup. This suggests a different interpretation of post-World War II German economic growth than features in much of the literature.

Keywords: ISI (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N0 O52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 53 pages
Date: 2008-12
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/22304/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Understanding West German economic growth in the 1950s (2009)
Working Paper: Understanding West German economic growth in the 1950s (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:wpaper:22304

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