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Structural Change and Europe's Golden Age

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  • Temple, Jonathan

Abstract

Most of the countries of Western Europe grew at unprecedented rates from the late 1940s until the early 1970s. Another feature of this period was dramatic structural change, as employment shifted from agriculture to manufacturing and services. This Paper uses growth accounting to measure the direct contribution of structural change to aggregate productivity growth. The conventional accounting framework is extended and then applied to Western Europe and the USA for the period 1950-90. The Paper quantifies the importance of structural change in explaining the Golden Age, the productivity slowdown, and the cross-country variation in post-war growth rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Temple, Jonathan, 2001. "Structural Change and Europe's Golden Age," CEPR Discussion Papers 2861, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:2861
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Davide Fiaschi & Andrea Mario Lavezzi & Angela Parenti, 2009. "Productivity Dynamics across European Regions: the Impact of Structural and Cohesion Funds," Discussion Papers 2009/84, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    2. Jonathan Temple & Ludger Wößmann, 2006. "Dualism and cross-country growth regressions," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 187-228, September.
    3. Tomasz Marek Mickiewicz & Anna Zalewska, 2005. "De-industrialisation and the post-communist transition: Rowthorn and Wells' model revisited," UCL SSEES Economics and Business working paper series 59, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES).
    4. Christopher Pissarides & Rachel Ngai, 2004. "Balanced Growth with Structural Change," 2004 Meeting Papers 450, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    5. Lepore, Amedeo, 2012. "L’andamento della spesa per l’intervento straordinario nel Mezzogiorno d’Italia, dalla golden age alla fine del XX secolo. (The trends in the expenditures of the extraordinary intervention in southern," De Computis "Revista Española de Historia de la Contabilidad". De Computis "Spanish Journal of Accounting History"., Asociación Española de Contabilidad y Administración de Empresas (AECA). Spanish Accounting and Business Administration Association., issue 16, pages 76-119, June.
    6. Barry Eichengreen & Albrecht Ritschl, 2009. "Understanding West German economic growth in the 1950s," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 3(3), pages 191-219, October.
    7. Thomas M. Steger, 2003. "Economic Growth and Sectoral Change under Resource Reallocation Costs," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 03/30, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    8. Longfeng Ye & Peter E. Robertson, 2017. "Migration and Growth in China: A Sceptical Assessment of the Evidence," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 17-03, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    9. Gavin Cameron & Chris Wallace, 2002. "Macroeconomic Performance in the Bretton Woods Era and After," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 18(4), pages 479-494.
    10. Alvarez-Cuadrado, Francisco & Pintea, Mihaela I., 2009. "A quantitative exploration of the Golden Age of European growth," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1437-1450, July.
    11. Monteforte, Fabio, 2020. "Structural change, the push-pull hypothesis and the Spanish labour market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 148-169.
    12. Nuvolari, Alessandro & Russo, Emanuele, 2019. "Technical progress and structural change: a long-term view," MERIT Working Papers 2019-022, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    13. Jaime Alonso-Carrera & Xavier Raurich, 2006. "Growth, Sectoral Composition, and the Wealth of Nations," DEGIT Conference Papers c011_019, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    14. L. Rachel Ngai & Christopher A. Pissarides, 2007. "Structural Change in a Multisector Model of Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(1), pages 429-443, March.
    15. Kelly, Ross, 2025. "The statistical underestimation of structural modernisation in Europe’s postwar golden age," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 127148, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Ye, Longfeng & Robertson, Peter E., 2019. "Hitting the Great Wall: Structural change and China's growth slowdown," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-1.
    17. Stephen Nickell & Stephen Redding & Joanna Swaffield, 2008. "The Uneven Pace of Deindustrialisation in the OECD," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(9), pages 1154-1184, September.
    18. Eichengreen, Barry & Ritschl, Albrecht, 2008. "Understanding West German economic growth in the 1950s," Economic History Working Papers 22304, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    19. Fabio Monteforte, 2015. "Structural Transformation, the Push-Pull Hypothesis and the Labour Market," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 15/654, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK, revised 01 Dec 2017.
    20. Luigi Cannari, 2010. "Mezzogiorno and Regional Policies," QA - Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi-Doria, Associazione Rossi Doria, issue 2, June.

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    JEL classification:

    • O52 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Europe

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