Germany’s Economic Growth In 1950–60 and the Problem of the Country’s Balance of Payments Sustainability

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-60
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Klimiuk
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
German Economy ◽  
National Income ◽  
Balance Of Payments ◽  
West Germany ◽  
West German Economy ◽  
Investment Activity ◽  
Gdp Growth Rate ◽  
State Expenditure ◽  
Post War

The 1950s in Germany, especially the period 1953–1958, were later recognised as the ‘golden years of the post-war period’. By the end of this period, most of the war damage had been removed and the economy was in a state of dynamic growth. In the period 1949–59, the average real GDP growth rate was about 7.4% with an average investment rate of 24.2% (in current prices). In the years (1950–53), a massive housing construction programme was carried out that was financed almost in half from public funds. Germany’s economic growth in 1950–60 mainly influenced by investment activities and the growth of exports. During this period, state expenditure did not play a major role in the growth of the West German economy (its share in national income steadily declined during the period in question). A the same time, the share of exports in national income was very high and showed a continuously increasing trend. A long-term growth of exports — affecting constantly the expansion of demand — became an important factor stimulating investment activity, which is the main lever of economic growth. At the same time, unusually strong export activity improved the balance of payments, which showed systematic surpluses. It should also be stressed that private consumption was not a factor driving economic prosperity in West Germany in this period. The share of consumption in Germany’s national income showed a declining trend in favour of investment.

Social Policy in Europe in the Twentieth Century

1993 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-201
Author(s):  
Paul Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
National Income ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
State Expenditure ◽  
Post War ◽  
Economic Growth Rates ◽  
European Welfare States

The 1980s proved to be a tough decade for European welfare states. The post-war ‘welfare consensus’, which perhaps had never been quite so strong or coherent as many contemporary historians and commentators had assumed, was finally laid to rest. The five great spectres identified by Beveridge want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness had not been humbled by public welfare provision despite its ever growing scale and cost. At the beginning of the 1980s the OECD published a report on The Welfare State in Crisis which pointed out that as welfare state expenditure had roughly doubled as a percentage of national income in most west European countries since the late 1950s, so economic growth rates had plummeted. The European welfare states appeared to produce few positive welfare benefits, and this minimal achievement was produced at enormous cost which was to the detriment of overall economic growth and societal well-being.

Chapter II. The World Economy

1974 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 46-64
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Full Employment ◽  
Balance Of Payments ◽  
West Germany ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The World ◽  
Policy Objectives

We remarked in our last issue : ‘It is not often that a government finds itself confronted with the possibility of a simultaneous failure to achieve all four main policy objectives—of adequate economic growth, full employment, a satisfactory balance of payments and reasonably stable prices.’ In the context this applied specifically to the United Kingdom, but the possibility is becoming increasingly real for the greater part of Western Europe, with West Germany the most obvious exception, and even for Japan it is less remote than it might quite recently have seemed.

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
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Unit Root Test ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Economic Miracle ◽  
Econometric Methods ◽  
Research Procedure ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Post War

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.

Wirtschaftswachstum und „neuer Arbeitsmarkt“ in Deutschland

2004 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Armin Osmanovic
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
German Economy ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Lower Saxony ◽  
The Past ◽  
East And West Germany ◽  
East And West ◽  
High Level ◽  
Structurally Weak Regions

Economic growth and the “new labor market” in Germany. The persistent high level of unemployment in Germany is usually blamed on the country’s inflexible labor market. This article attempts to show that in Germany - as in comparable countries - employment is primarily determined by economic growth. However, the growth of the German economy has been lagging behind the European average for some time. The article briefly discusses why this has been the case. The study contradicts the widely held theory that the German labor market restricts economic growth, and instead advances the proposition that the German labor market has changed to such an extent over the past few years, that the term “new labor market” is indeed warranted. This “new labor market” is regionally differentiated, as will be shown at the hand of “Bundesländer” (Nuts I regions). In particular, differences emerge between East and West Germany, but economically successful regions (Baden-Württemberg) with low unemployment levels also differ from structurally weak regions (Lower Saxony) with regards to the “new labor market”.

scholarly journals Impact of Remittance on Economic Growth in Bangladesh

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabiha Binta Hasan ◽  
Roksana Akhter ◽  
Al Amin Al Abbasi ◽  
Subrata Saha
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Foreign Currency ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
National Income ◽  
Balance Of Payments ◽  
Foreign Exchange Reserves ◽  
Velocity Of Money ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Day By Day

In Bangladesh, remittance is one of the most important economic variables in recent times as it has an impact on economic growth, helps in balancing balance of payments, increasing foreign exchange reserves, enhancing national savings and increasing velocity of money. For about two decades remittance has been contributing around 35% of export earnings. Moreover, it is greater than foreign aid and thus helps in lessening dependence on foreign aid remittance gets momentum in recent time in Bangladesh and is the second largest sector of foreign currency earnings after the garment; sector. If cost of imported raw materials is deducted from the foreign currency earning of the garments sector thanit becomes the largest sector of foreign currency earnings. Remittance earning ; increasing day by day but at a lower rate than the increase in emigration from Bangladesh due to the increasing share of unskilled or semi-skilled labors than the professionals in international migration. The share of remittance in GNI (Gross National Income) is increasing day by day. Remittance affects almost all the macro-economic indicators of a country positively. Though there are also negative sides of remittance earning e.g. brain drain, its overall contribution to Bangladesh economy is very much effective.  

Cultural Transmission Versus Perceptions of the Economy

1996 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERT ROHRSCHNEIDER
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
German Economy ◽  
West Germany ◽  
West German Economy ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
The West ◽  
Economic Values ◽  
East And West Germany ◽  
Economic Culture ◽  
Social Market

The formal division of Germany in 1949 and the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 demarcate a monumental quasi-experiment. Whereas the political culture aspects of this experiment have been studied extensively, the implications of these events for the economic culture in West and East Germany have received less attention. This article attempts to fill this gap in scholarship by examining the basic economic values of parliamentarians in East and West Germany. To this end, I interviewed 168 parliamentarians from the united Parliament in Berlin (79 from the East, 89 from the West). The study finds that the socialist order successfully imbued East MPs with socialist economic values—especially among the postwar cohort—independent of MPs' evaluation of contemporary economic conditions. In contrast, West MPs' economic values reflect the social market system of the West German economy. These results suggest that basic institutional arrangements, once put into place, have a substantial influence on individuals' ideological predispositions.

scholarly journals The Origin of German-American Relations as a Partnership of Unequal Parties

2015 ◽  
pp. 15-22
Author(s):  
E. S. Leonov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
German Economy ◽  
The United States ◽  
West Germany ◽  
American Military ◽  
Postwar Germany ◽  
German Nation ◽  
Nuclear Component ◽  
Experimental Project ◽  
Post War

Abstract: Despite the high technological effectiveness of today’s German economy which serves as the «engine» of Europe and the core of the European integration processes, Germany, however, possesses a limited foreign policy leverage in the modern international relations. Gradual restriction of the sovereignty of Germany began during the post-war period due to the strengthening of the European track of U.S. foreign policy. For instance, at this stage Washington takes the responsibility on restoration of the German economic welfare, filling of legal vacuum in West Germany and also initiates cultural and ideological expansion. In the latter case it was an important role played by the American course on the formation of the renewed German nation by means of work with the German youth and the control over the sphere of education. In fact, at the end of the war US authorities started in West Germany experimental project from scratch, since there were no state institutions in postwar Germany in principle. At the same time, German foreign policy takes shape in the 1950s in the spirit of «Atlantic solidarity» as a result of falling into the trap of Euro-Atlantic partnership. Hopes of attainment of foreign policy independence as a result of German reunification did not come true - the United States haven’t yet set Germany free from the sphere of its geopolitical influence. American military forces with nuclear component continue to be based within the territory of Germany. In addition, in the 1990s. Germany finds itself in even deeper trade, investment and financial bondage. The article analyzes the origin of German full-scale dependence on U.S. foreign policy.

The Quality of Kazakhstan’s Economic Policy and Balance of Payments

2008 ◽  
pp. 120-132
Author(s):  
K. Arystanbekov
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Balance Of Payments ◽  
Foreign Investors ◽  
Negative Balance ◽  
Macroeconomic Efficiency

Kazakhstan’s economic policy in 1996-2007, its character and the degree of responsibility, the correlation between economic development and balance of current accounts are considered in the article. Special attention is paid to the analysis of their macroeconomic efficiency. It is concluded that in conditions of high rates of economic growth in Kazahkstan in 2000-2007 the net profits of foreign investors are 10-11% of GDP every year. The tendency of negative balance of current accounts in favor of foreign investors is also analyzed.

Pakistan's Export Possibilities

1973 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Syed Nawab Haider Naqvi
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Policy Maker ◽  
Time Horizon ◽  
Price Level ◽  
Balance Of Payments ◽  
Domestic Saving ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
High Level

The recent uncertainties about aid flows have underscored the need for achieving an early independence from foreign aid. The Perspective Plan (1,965-85) had envisaged the termination of Pakistan's dependence on foreign aid by 1985. However, in the context of West Pakistan alone the time horizon can now be advanced by several years with considerable confidence in its economy to pull the trick. The difficulties of achieving independence from foreign aid can be seen by reference to the fact that aid flows make it possible for the policy-maker to pursue such ostensibly incompatible objectives as a balance in international payments (i.e., foreign aid finances the balance of payments), higher rates of economic growth (Lei, it pulls up domestic saving and investment levels), a high level of employment (i.e., it keeps the industries working at a fuller capacity than would otherwise be the case), and a reasonably stable price level (i.e., it lets a higher level of imports than would otherwise be possible). Without aid, then a simultaneous attainment of all these objectives at the former higher levels together with the balance in foreign payments may become well-nigh impos¬sible. Choices are, therefore, inevitable not for definite places in the hierarchy of values, but rather for occasional "trade-offs". That is to say, we will have to" choose how much to sacrifice for the attainment of one goal for the sake of somewhat better realization of another.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document