A Quantitative Exploration of the Golden Age of European Growth

Income per capita in some Western European countries more than tripled in the two and a half decades that followed World War II. The literature has identified several factors behind this outstanding growth episode, specifically; structural change associated with large migrations from agriculture to nonagricultural sectors, the Marshall Plan combined with the public provision of infrastructure, the surge of intra-European trade, and the reconstruction process that followed the devastation of the war. This paper is an attempt to formalize and quantify the direct contribution of each one of these factors to growth during the European Golden Age. Our results highlight the importance of reconstruction growth and structural change, and point to the limited role of the Marshall Plan, and the late contribution of intra-European trade.Economic Growth, European Economic History 1913-, Computable General Equilibrium Models.

Leisure externalities: Implications for growth and welfare

This paper develops a neoclassical growth model with leisure externalities. Ignoring positive (negative) leisure externalities leads to equilibrium consumption, labor and capital that are too high (low) and leisure that is too low (high). The government should tax (subsidize) labor income according to whether the leisure externality is positive or negative. The level of this tax (subsidy) depends on the elasticity of individual and average leisure and the consumption tax. Equilibrium dynamics are characterized, and two shocks to the economy are analyzed - an increase in the growth rate of labor productivity, and an increase in the tax on labor income - by simulating a calibrated economy. Adjustment processes of key variables in a competitive and centrally planned economy with and without leisure externalities are also compared.Leisure externalities Transitional dynamics Economic growth

A quantitative exploration of the Golden Age of European growth

Income per capita in some Western European countries more than tripled in the two and a half decades that followed World War II. The literature has identified several factors behind this outstanding growth episode, specifically; structural change, the Marshall Plan combined with the public provision of infrastructure, the surge of intra-European trade, and the reconstruction process that followed the war. This paper is an attempt to formalize and quantify the contribution of each one of these factors to post-war growth. Our results highlight the importance of reconstruction growth and structural change, and point to the limited role of the Marshall Plan, and the late contribution of intra-European trade.Economic growth European economic history 1913- CGE models