Abstracts of Papers Presented at the Annual Meeting

Abstract

We draw on the experience of the major combatant countries in World War I to analyse the role of economic factors in determining the outcome of the war and the effects of the war on subsequent economic performance. We demonstrate that the degree of mobilisation for war can be explained largely by differences in the level of development of each country, leaving little room for other factors that feature prominently in narrative accounts, such as national differences in war preparations, war leadership, military organisation and morale. We analyse the effects of the war on subsequent growth performance in terms of the scale of destruction of physical and human capital. Although there was some rebound after the war, it was not enough to undo the negative effects of the capital destruction and the damage to the international institutional framework caused by the war.