IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedhwp/wp-01-07.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The role of real wages, productivity and fiscal policy in Germany's Great Depression 1928-1937

Author

Listed:
  • Jonas D. M. Fisher
  • Andreas Hornstein

Abstract

We study the behavior of output, employment, consumption, and investment in Germany during the Great Depression of 1928-37. In this time period, real wages were countercyclical, and productivity and fiscal policy were procyclical. We use the neoclassical growth model to investigate how much these factors contribute to the Depression. We find that real wages, which were significantly above their market clearing levels, were the most important factor for the economic decline in the Depression. Changes in productivity and fiscal policy were also important for the decline and recovery. Even though our analysis is limited to a small number of factors, the model accounts surprisingly well for the Depression in Germany.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonas D. M. Fisher & Andreas Hornstein, 2001. "The role of real wages, productivity and fiscal policy in Germany's Great Depression 1928-1937," Working Paper Series WP-01-07, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-01-07
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.chicagofed.org/digital_assets/publications/working_papers/2001/wp2001-07.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Craig Burnside & Martin S. Eichenbaum & Jonas D. M. Fisher, 1999. "Assessing the effects of fiscal shocks," Working Paper Series WP-99-18, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    2. Harold L. Cole & Lee E. Ohanian, 1999. "The Great Depression in the United States from a neoclassical perspective," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 23(Win), pages 2-24.
    3. Ritschl Albrecht & Spoerer Mark, 1997. "Das Bruttosozialprodukt in Deutschland nach den amtlichen Volkseinkommens- und Sozialproduktsstatistiken 1901-1995," Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook, De Gruyter, vol. 38(2), pages 27-54, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Albrecht Ritschl & Monique Ebell, 2007. "Real Origins of the Great Depression: Monopoly Power, Unions and the American Business Cycle in the 1920s," 2007 Meeting Papers 712, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sergio Rebelo, 2005. "Real Business Cycle Models: Past, Present, and Future," NBER Working Papers 11401, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Mark Weder, 2006. "Some Observations on the Great Depression in Germany," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 7(1), pages 113-133, February.
    3. Casey B. Mulligan, 2002. "A Dual Method of Empirically Evaluating Dynamic Competitive Equilibrium Models with Market Distortions, Applied to the Great Depression & World War II," NBER Working Papers 8775, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Ellen R. M cG rattan & Lee E. Ohanian, 2010. "Does Neoclassical Theory Account For The Effects Of Big Fiscal Shocks? Evidence From World War Ii," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 51(2), pages 509-532, May.
    5. Jonas D.M. Fisher & Andreas Hornstein, 2002. "The Role of Real Wages, Productivity, and Fiscal Policy in Germany's Great Depression 1928-37," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 5(1), pages 100-127, January.
    6. Jonas D.M. Fisher & Andreas Hornstein, 2002. "The Role of Real Wages, Productivity, and Fiscal Policy in Germany's Great Depression 1928-37," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 5(1), pages 100-127, January.
    7. Francisco de Castro, 2006. "The macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy in Spain," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(8), pages 913-924.
    8. Juan Carlos Conesa & Timothy J. Kehoe & Kim J. Ruhl, 2007. "Modeling great depressions: the depression in Finland in the 1990s," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 31(Nov), pages 16-44.
    9. Stephen Broadberry & Carsten Burhop, 2008. "Resolving the Anglo-German Industrial Productivity Puzzle, 1895-1935: A Response to Professor Ritschl," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2008_27, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    10. Timothy J. Kehoe, 2003. "What Can We Learn from the Current Crisis in Argentina?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 50(5), pages 609-633, November.
    11. Franck Portier, 2008. "Interprétation d'épisodes historiques à l'aide de modèles dynamiques stochastiques d'équilibre général," Economie & Prévision, La Documentation Française, vol. 0(4), pages 33-46.
    12. Takeshi Niizeki, 2012. "Energy-Saving Technological Change in Japan," Global COE Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series gd11-218, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    13. Gomes, Victor & Teixeira, Arilton & Bugarin, Mirta Sataka & Ellery Jr, Roberto, 2010. "From a Miracle to a Disaster: the Brazilian Economy in the Last 3 Decades," Brazilian Review of Econometrics, Sociedade Brasileira de Econometria - SBE, vol. 30(1), October.
    14. Baten, Jorg & Wagner, Andrea, 2003. "Autarchy, market disintegration, and health: the mortality and nutritional crisis in Nazi Germany, 1933-1937," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 1-28, January.
    15. David C. Wheelock, 2008. "The federal response to home mortgage distress: lessons from the Great Depression," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 90(May), pages 133-148.
    16. Betts, Caroline, 2021. "Accounting for Japan's Lost Score," MPRA Paper 109285, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Keiichiro Kobayashi, 2006. "Payment uncertainty, the division of labor, and productivity declines in great depressions," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 9(4), pages 715-741, October.
    18. Timothy J. Kehoe & Edward C. Prescott, 2007. "Great depressions of the twentieth century," Monograph, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, number 2007gdott.
    19. Lawrence J. Christiano & Roberto Motto & Massimo Rostagno, 2003. "The Great Depression and the Friedman-Schwartz hypothesis," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, pages 1119-1215.
    20. Slim BRIDJI, 2007. "Accounting for the French Great Depression," 2007 Meeting Papers 461, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fiscal policy; Productivity; Wages; Germany;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-01-07. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Lauren Wiese (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbchus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.