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The Marshall Plan: History's Most Successful Structural Adjustment Program

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Listed author(s):
  • DeLong, J. Bradford
  • Eichengreen, Barry

Abstract

The post-World War II reconstruction of Western Europe was one of the greatest economic policy and foreign policy successes of this century. "Folk wisdom" assigns a major role in successful reconstruction to the Marshall Plan: the program that transferred some $13 billion to Europe in the years 1948-51. We examine the economic effects of the Marshall Plan, and find that it was not large enough to have significantly accelerated recovery by financing investment, aiding the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure, or easing commodity bottlenecks. We argue, however, that the Marshall Plan did play a major role in setting the stage for post-World War II Western Europe's rapid growth. The conditions attached to Marshall Plan aid pushed European political economy in a direction that left its post World War II "mixed economies" with more "market" and less "controls" in the mix.

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Paper provided by Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley in its series Department of Economics, Working Paper Series with number qt3b1108bj.

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Date of creation: 01 Nov 1991
Handle: RePEc:cdl:econwp:qt3b1108bj
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Keywords: Marshall Plan; foreign aid; Eastern Europe; Social and Behavioral Sciences;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • F02 - International Economics - - General - - - International Economic Order and Integration

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  1. Broadberry, S N, 1994. "Why was Unemployment in Postwar Britain So Low?," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 241-261, July.
  2. Holtfrerich, Carl-Ludwig, 1986. "U.S. capital exports to Germany 1919-1923 compared to 1924-1929," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 1-32, January.
  3. Alessandra Casella & Barry Eichengreen, 1991. "Halting Inflation in Italy and France After World War II," NBER Working Papers 3852, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  4. Alesina, Alberto & Drazen, Allan, 1991. "Why Are Stabilizations Delayed?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(5), pages 1170-1188, December.
  5. Maier, Charles S., 1977. "The politics of productivity: foundations of American international economic policy after World War II," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(04), pages 607-633, September.
  6. Glyn, A. & Hughes, A. & Lipietz, A. & Singh, A., 1988. "The Rise And Fall Of The Golden Age," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 884, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
  7. Wojeiech Kostrzewa & Peter Nunnenkamp & Holger Schmieding, 1990. "A Marshall Plan for Middle and Eastern Europe," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 27-49, 03.
  8. Dumke, Rolf H, 1990. "Reassessing the Wirtschaftswunder: Reconstruction and Postwar Growth in West Germany in an International Context," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 52(4), pages 451-491, Special I.
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  1. Greece from Postwar Orthodoxy to “Democratic Peronism”
    by pseudoerasmus in Pseudoerasmus on 2015-02-23 06:01:23
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