Golden Age Of Economic Growth Research Articles

Socialist growth revisited: insights from Yugoslavia

Beyond the recent past, and beyond the Soviet Union, we know little about the performance of Eastern European economies. This paper fills the knowledge void by analyzing socialist Yugoslavia using a diagnostic tool that identifies the mechanisms that drive economic growth - business cycle accounting. The analysis provides novel findings. During the “Golden Age of economic growth, total factor productivity became gradually more important in sustaining economic growth. Distorted labour incentives were a major constraint on growth since the mid-1960s, and explain the slowdown of the economy during the 1980s. Socialist growth was primarily handicapped by poor incentives to work, rather than by poor incentives to innovate or to imitate. In an attempt to liberalise the economy, economic power was delegated to the labour-managed firms. These firms were maximising income per worker, which I hypothesise hindered the ability of Yugoslavs to work.

What happened to regional inequality in Britain in the twentieth century?

New estimates of regional GDP for Great Britain in the twentieth century differ from those of Crafts but confirm his hypothesis of a U‐shaped regional inequality curve between 1911 and 2001. Comparison of these estimates with revised estimates for 1861–1911 suggests that the decline in inequality in the first half of the twentieth century forms part of a trend of declining regional inequality and catch‐up of the poorer regions with the richest (the South East) dating back to the 1860s at least. This convergence trend was interrupted by the First World War and the subsequent difficulties of Outer Britain in the 1920s when the gap between the South East and the rest widened. However, sometime after 1931 it picked up again. Since 1971 inequality has worsened and catch‐up has stopped; indeed, there has been divergence of the South East from the rest. This divergence has been especially marked since 1991. Although growth for all regions was faster during the period of increasing regional inequality that encompasses the second half of the twentieth century, the golden age of economic growth for regions outside the South East occurred during the long boom following the Second World War.

Measuring competition in Portuguese commercial banking during the Golden Age (1960–1973)

The institutional environment of Portuguese banking during the Golden Age of economic growth (1950–1973) has been criticised in many accounts. According to various authors, on the one hand it would have granted excessive protection to existing banks, allowing them to obtain high rents, a disincentive for them to compete; on the other, it would have forced them to concentrate their activity excessively on short-term credit instruments, thereby preventing them from contributing effectively to finance growth. In this article we use a formal statistical approach of the Panzar–Rosse type and conclude that the system did, in fact, have some interesting competitive features.

Post-war reconstruction and the Golden Age of economic growth

This article briefly reviews the core literature on the Golden Age of economic growth and tests the explanatory power of alternative theories against one another, with particular emphasis on the reconstruction thesis as developed by Janossy. While previous empirical work on the subject relied on cross-sectional analysis, I employ panel-data techniques, which produce more robust estimates. I demonstrate that, for the core western industrialised nations, the rapidity and variety of economic growth during the 1950s and 1960s can mostly be explained by post-war reconstruction, the completion of which marked the end of the Golden Age. Labour-force expansion also made a very strong positive contribution. In the more peripheral countries of the OECD, however, rapid catching-up from the late 1950s was largely brought about by structural modernisation. Finally, human-capital accumulation has had a determining impact on long-run growth potentials, modelled here as time-constant country-fixed effects.

European Capitalism Today: Between the Euro and the Third Way

Since the late 1970s, Western Europe's Golden Age of economic growth has plainly ended. "Euro-pessimism," "euro-sclerosis," and "euro-stagnation" were just a few of the epitaphs written for Europe at the end of the twentieth century. Among the attempts to revive accumulation were neoliberal projects embracing market flexibility, government restraint, and hard currency in Britain and Germany, followed by the offensive against the "Dutch Disease" in the Netherlands and crusades for modernization in the Southern cone. Other attempts were the various social democratic projects to spread employment through reflation, public sector expansion and active adjustment policies, notably in Sweden under Palme and France under Mitterrand. None of these endeavors of the 1980s succeeded in restoring rapid growth.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Are we entering a new golden age of economic growth?

Andrew Sentance presents an upbeat assessment of UK medium‐term growth potential. He argues that the economy can sustain a lower average level of unemployment than we have become accustomed to, without inflation. As a result, he argues that the UK economy can grow faster over the next ten years than recent trends or long‐term performance suggest. A return to the growth rates of the “golden era” of the 1950s and 1960s is not out of the question. The key to this scenario is not a dash for growth, but steady management of the economy coupled with measures to raise educational standards, speed the introduction of new technology and improve the functioning of the labour market.

The golden age of economic growth in Western Europe, 1950-1973

Since the mid-1980's there has been a major resurgence in the economics profession both of theoretical and empirical research on economic growth. In this paper I shall explore the implications of these new ideas for our understanding of the extraordinarily rapid European Growth of the post World War II period and, more briefly, of Britain's relatively slow growth rate. At the same time I wish to suggest that economists may have something to learn from the economic history of these years and that more serious study of this episode might modify some of their research findings.

The golden age of economic growth in Western Europe, 1950-1973

S ince the mid-ig8os there has been a major resurgence in the economics profession both of theoretical and of empirical research on economic growth. In this article I shall explore the implications of these new ideas for our understanding of the extraordinarily rapid European growth of the early post-Second World War period and, more briefly, of Britain's relative slow growth rate. At the same time I wish to suggest that economists may have something to learn from the economic history of these years and that more serious study of this episode might modify some of their research findings.

The Golden Age of Economic Growth in Postwar Europe: Why Did Northern Ireland Miss Out?

The Golden Age of Economic Growth in Postwar Europe: Why Did Northern Ireland Miss Out?

The need for Positive Adjustment Policies in the 1980s

Looking back at the economic performance of OECD countries in the 1970’s, there can be no doubt that achievements fell far short of what now appears to have been the “golden age of economic growth and stability” of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Expansion of economic activity decelerated and productivity gains remained sluggish. Inflation of consumer prices in the OECD area rose sharply to a record level of more than 14%, and only quite recently has it been brought down to below 7%. Unemployment had reached more than 8% by the beginning of 1982, and it is still rising. International trade, which grew faster than world production in the post-war period and was still increasing even when economic growth stagnated in the early 1980’s, is now contracting. Clearly, these developments are not merely the consequence of just another downturn in the business cycle of overall demand; more lasting changes have occurred on the supply side, setting new conditions for production, employment, investment and trade.