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Wartime Prosperity? A Reassessment of the U.S. Economy in the 1940s

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  • Higgs, Robert

Abstract

Relying on standard measures of macroeconomic performance, historians and economists believe that “war prosperity†prevailed in the United States during World War II. This belief is ill-founded, because it does not recognize that the United States had a command economy during the war. From 1942 to 1946 some macroeconomic performance measures are statistically inaccurate; others are conceptually inappropriate. A better grounded interpretation is that during the war the economy was a huge arsenal in which the well-being of consumers deteriorated. After the war genuine prosperity returned for the first time since 1929.

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  • Higgs, Robert, 1992. "Wartime Prosperity? A Reassessment of the U.S. Economy in the 1940s," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(1), pages 41-60, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:52:y:1992:i:01:p:41-60_01
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