scholarly journals Development of Transport as a Factor of the Economic Miracle (Wirtschaftswunder) of West Germany

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-215
Author(s):  
Janusz Myszczyszyn

Abstract The post-war economic policy of West Germany (FRG) is largely associated with the so-called economic miracle (German: Wirtschaftswunder) and therefore its causes are the subject of many different analyzes. They include the correlation between the rate of economic growth in Germany and the development and transport potential of transport, including rail and road-car transport. This position prompted the author to try to search for long-term interdependencies and thus verify the thesis using the analysis of time series (1950–1989) available for West Germany and using original econometric methods in this field, e.g. unit root test to determine the stationarity and the Engle-Granger cointegration test. In addition to the introduction, the article consists of three parts and conclusions. The broadest one includes the description of the assumptions and stages of the research procedure and its results, both on the empirical and methodological level. It is based on synthetic theoretical foundations presented on the basis of a review of international literature on the subject and review of the essence of the German economic miracle and the main trends in changes in the field of economic growth and transport development in Germany after World War II. The research presented in this way fits into the principles of the new economic history paradigm, which is still not very popular in Europe.

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurgen Brauer

The article reviews Vernon Ruttan's new book, Is Growth Necessary for Economic Growth? Military Procurement and Technological Development (Oxford University Press, 2006). The subject matter is limited to the post-world war II United States only. Studying six general-purpose technologies emerging from war environments, the book claims that much of the U.S. post-war growth experience can be attributed to them. The reviewer finds that this is not Prof. Ruttan's best work, in part because the underlying research is too casual to support the conclusions drawn.


2020 ◽  
pp. 85-100
Author(s):  
Akizumi Tsutsumi

Since the end of World War II, the Japanese economy has experienced two types of ‘dual structure’ issues among occupational groups. The period before the war until 1950 consisted of large-scale companies stemming from zaibatsu (financial cliques) and indigenous domestic industries. The health disparities across occupational groups, often observed in the West, increased between the pre-war period and the 1950s but declined in the subsequent high economic growth period. The decline in health disparities was aided by economic democratization policies, active labour union functions, and post-war economic growth. Near-total employment was achieved, at least among male workers, in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Later, recession in the wake of the bursting bubble economy after 1991, and the subsequent economy-first policy, brought another dual structure: regular employees versus lower-paid ‘precarious’ employees. The latter group includes many women. Stressful working conditions including long working hours among specific occupational groups may cause unique patterns of health disparity among Japanese workers.


2014 ◽  
Vol 64 (Supplement-1) ◽  
pp. 201-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Endrit Lami ◽  
Holger Kächelein ◽  
Drini Imami

Over the last decades, there has been plenty of research and publications on Political Business Cycles (PBC), aimed at analysing and explaining the use of fiscal and monetary instruments to stimulate economic growth before elections, with the intention of impressing potential voters. Previous research on PBC in Albania reveals clear evidence of fiscal expansion before elections, but no significant changes in GDP and inflation as theory predicts. One possible explanation of this result could be economic agents’ expectations, which is the subject of this paper. We analyse consumers’ expectations before elections, the main factors underlying expectations, and the way in which these expectations influence their behaviour toward spending, and consequently the macroeconomic outcomes, deploying standard econometric methods widely applied in PBC related research. According to our research results, households’ consumption spending decreases before elections because of the higher uncertainty about their future economic situation due to the highly politicised public employment.


Author(s):  
Lyn Ragsdale ◽  
Jerrold G. Rusk

Abstract: The chapter considers nonvoting after World War II, a unique electoral period in American history with the lowest nonvoting rates of any period from 1920–2012. The post-war period also boasts the highest economic growth rate of any of the four periods, coupled with the early days of television which transformed politics in the 1950s. In general, economic growth and the introduction of television move nonvoting rates downward. The chapter also considers in detail the struggles leading to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the law’s impact on nonvoting rates among African Americans. It also uncovers that in the 1960s the Vietnam War increased nonvoting. The chapter begins an analysis of nonvoting at the individual level. The less individuals know about the campaign context and the less they form comparisons between the candidates, the more likely they will say home on Election Day.


2019 ◽  
pp. 150-160
Author(s):  
Maria Ivanytska

The article provides an insight into the work of cultural activists in Germany in the post-war decades. It delineates the following groups of translators and popularizers of Ukrainian literature in West Germany: 1) German speakers: Halychyna descendant Hans Koch and Elisabeth Kottmeier, the wife of the Ukrainian poet Igor Kosteckyj; 2) the Ukrainian scholars who began their activity before the war: Dmytro (Dimitrij) Tschižeswskij, Iwan Mirtschuk; 3) representatives of the younger wave of emigration – Jurij Bojko-Blochyn, Olexa and Anna-Halja Horbatsch, Igor Kostetskyj, Mychahlo Orest, Jurij Kossatsch and others. The author reflects on the question whether or not the post-war Ukrainian emigration was integrated into a wider context of German culture. This is analyzed from the vantage point of the Western European reader’s/ literary critic’s readiness for the reception of Ukrainian literature. Among the first promoters of Ukrainian literature was the Artistic Ukrainian Movement (Munich), whose member of the board, Jurij Kossatsch, published the first review of the then contemporary Ukrainian literature in the German language “Ukrainische Literatur der Gegenwart” (1947). The author analyzes the first collection of translations of Ukrainian poetry “Gelb und Blau: Moderne ukrainische Dichtung in Auswahl” (“Yellow and Blue: Selected Contemporary Ukrainian Poetry”) compiled by Wolodimir Derzhawin, who condemned the persecution and extermination of poets in the USSR, criticized proletarian literature and the choice of authors. The preface by Derzhavin testified to the conviction of Ukrainian emigrants that free Ukrainian literature could flourish only in the exile. The work of the translators’ tandem of Igor Kosteckyj and Elisabeth Kottmeier is further described. The chronological and quantitative comparison of scholarly publications on Ukrainian literature in the then West Germany revealed that one of the major accomplishments of the Ukrainian diaspora was the transition from the complete lack to a gradual increase of interest in the aforementioned subject. The article emphasizes the significance of the translating activity of Anna-Halja Horbatsch aimed at introducing Ukrainian literature to the German Slavic Studies scholars along with ordinary readers. This was made possible when large collections of translations “Blauer November. Ukrainische Erzähler unseres Jahrhunderts” (Blue November: Ukrainian writers of this century) and “Ein Brunnen für Durstige “ (“The Well for the Thirsty”) were out, and in the 90’s – when the publishing house specializing in translations from Ukrainian literature was founded. The Soviets’ negative reaction to those and previous publications is perceived as a manifestation of the political engagement of socialist literary criticism. Conclusion: Anna-Halja Horbatsch’ contribution to the systematic acquaintance of the West German reader with modern Ukrainian literature is by far the most significant due to her numerous translations, scholarly articles, and critical reviews.


2020 ◽  
pp. 290-307
Author(s):  
I. D. Popov

The formation of the Minister Presidents of the German states conferences institution after the end of World War II until the end of 1947 is traced. For the fi time in Russian and post-Soviet historiography, the importance of interzonal meetings of heads of regional governments for the political development of Germany in the fi post-war years is shown. The results of the conferences in Stuttgart (February 6, April 3, 1946), Bremen (February 28 — March 1, 1946), Munich (June 6—7, 1947) and Wiesbaden (February 17, June 15—16, October 22, 1947 of the year) are considered. It is concluded that the experience of these meetings and, at the same time, the weak effectiveness of the inter-party dialogue persuaded the Western allies in December 1947 to choose the conference of Minister Presidents as the main negotiating platform with German politicians on the future constitution of West Germany. On the basis of published and archival documentary sources, the transformation of the conferences of Minister Presidents from consultative appendages of military administrations into an infl political structure claiming national representation is shown. At the same time, this infl according to the author of the article, was subject to serious restrictions from not only military administrations, but also party leaders.


Author(s):  
Oskar Stanisław Czarnik

The subject of this article is an overview of Polish publishing in the exile during the World War II and first post-war years. The literary activity was mostly linked to the cultural tradition of the Second Polish Republic. The author describes this phenomenon quantitatively and presents the number of books published in the respective years. He also tries to explain which external factors, not only political and military, but also financial and organizational, affected publications of Polish books around the world. The subject of the debate is also geography of the Polish publishing. It is connected with a long term migration of different groups of people living in exile. The author not only points out the areas where Polish editorial activity was just temporary, but also the areas where it was long-lasting. The book output was a great assistance to Polish people living in diasporas, as well as to readers living in Poland. The following text is an excerpt of the book which is currently being prepared by the author. The book is devoted to the history of Polish publishing in exile.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-366
Author(s):  
Michael Madojemu

The paper investigates the relevance of foreign direct investment (FDI) as a factor inhibiting economic growth in Nigeria. This paper inspects the sectorial influence of FDI in manufacturing, mining, oil and the telecommunications sectors on economic growth in Nigeria based on theoretical framework founded on the standard growth accounting theory, detailed analysis of the sectorial FDI over the period 1981 and 2017 was carried out. Various econometric methods are employed, such as the ADF test, Dickey and Fuller test (1979), PP test (Phillips and Perron, 1988) are used for the unit root test, and the Shahbaz and Rahman (2010) method is used for the long-run relationship between the foreign direct investment and economic growth. The paper also adapted the framework provided by M.B. Obwona (2004). The paper formalizes a mechanism of recommendations to allow for the influence of foreign direct investment in the transmission of socio-economic growth generated in Nigeria. In conclusion, government should provide an enabling environment that will encourage foreign investors to invest in Nigeria economy by addressing the security challenges in the country, understanding that investment friendly environment will improved regulatory framework as well as encourage domestic investment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bach ◽  
Benjamin Nienass

Innocence is central to German memory politics; indeed, one can say that the German memory landscape is saturated with claims of innocence. The Great War is commonly portrayed as a loss of innocence, while the Nazis sought, in their way, to reclaim that innocence by proclaiming Germany as the innocent victim. After World War II, denazification and courts established administrative and legal boundaries within which claims of innocence could be formulated and adjudicated, while the “zero hour” and “economic miracle” established a basis for a different form of reclaiming innocence, one roundly critiqued by Theodor W. Adorno in his essay “What Does Coming to Terms with the Past Mean?”1 In the 1980s, Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s famous pronouncement of the “grace [Gnade] of a late birth” (also translatable as “mercy,” “pardon,” or “blessing”) became the touchstone for a resurgence of war children’s (Kriegskinder) memory. In the 1990s, the myth of the Wehrmacht as largely innocent of atrocities was publicly challenged. Today, rightwing critiques that cast Holocaust remembrance as a politics of shame draw upon tropes of innocence, of German air war victims and post-war generations, while right-wing images of migrants are cast in classic forms of threats to the purity of the “national body” (Volkskörper). The quickening pace of contemporary debates over Germany’s colonial past pointedly questions the innocence of today’s beneficiaries of colonialism, drawing attention to the borders and contours of implication.


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