Machine tools and mass production in the armaments boom
Germany and the United States, 1929-44
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3715142 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Cristiano Andrea Ristuccia (Faculty of Economics and Trinity Hall University of Cambridge), Adam Tooze (Department of History Yale University) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 66 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 953-974 |
| Publication date | 2013-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Economic History Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-0117 • E-ISSN: 1468-0289 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2012.00675.x |
| OpenAlex | W1891908388 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 34 |
This article anatomizes the 'productivity race' between Nazi Germany and the US over the period from the Great Depression to the Second World War in the metalworking industry. We present novel data that allow us to account for both the quantity of installed machine tools and their technological type. Hitherto, comparison of productive technologies has been limited to case studies and well-worn narratives about US mass production and European-style flexible specialization. Our data show that the two countries in fact employed similar types of machines combined in different ratios. Furthermore, neither country was locked in a rigid technological paradigm. By 1945 Germany had converged on the US both in terms of capital-intensity and the specific technologies employed. Capital investment made a greater contribution to output growth in Germany, whereas US growth was capital-saving. Total factor productivity growth made a substantial contribution to the armaments boom in both countries. But it was US industry, spared the war's most disruptive effects, that was in a position to take fullest advantage of the opportunities for wartime productivity growth. This adds a new element to familiar explanations for Germany's rapid catch-up after 1945
Art · Boom · Capital (architecture) · Capital investment · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Industrial organization · Investment (military) · Labour economics · Macroeconomics · Political science · Production (economics) · Productivity · Total factor productivity · Economic Growth and Productivity · Engineering · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Italy: Economic History and Contemporary Issues
A Hard Sell
Supplier networks in the German aircraft industry during World War II and their long-term effects on West Germany's automobile industry during the ‘Wirtschaftswunder’
Productivity Trends in Advanced Countries between 1890 and 2012
Snowbirds Spotted in Cuba
The Yankees of Europe? A New View on Technology and Productivity in German Manufacturing in the Early Twentieth Century
The Rise and Fall of Technological Leadership
The decline of US manufacturing productivity between 1941 and 1948
The second industrial divide
Das Wachstum der deutschen Wirtschaft seit der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts
Endless Novelty
The Productivity Race
Ostdeutsche Wirtschaft.
Die deutsche Industrie im Kriege 1939–1945.
The Economics of World War II
From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932
The Effects of Strategic Bombing on the German War Economy
Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1946
War, Economy and Society, 1939–1945
Punktuelle Modernisierung”
German Industrial Employment 1925,1933,1936 and 1939. A New Benchmark for 1936 and a Note on Hoffmann's Tales
Resolving the Anglo-German Industrial Productivity Puzzle, 1895-1935
The Army and Economic Mobilization
The U.S. Machine Tool Industry from 1900-1950
Industrieller Maschinenbau im 19. Jahrhundert
British and German Manufacturing Productivity Compared
Wartime Socialization of Investment
Technological Change and U.S. Productivity Growth in the Interwar Years
The Anglo-German Industrial Productivity Puzzle, 1895–1935
The equipment hypothesis and US economic growth
History of the Gear-Cutting Machine
Manufacturing and the Convergence Hypothesis
Comparative Productivity in British and German Manufacturing Before World War II
The impact of the Second World War on US productivity growth1
Historical Alternatives to Mass Production
Flexibility and Mass Production at War
Fixed-price contracts, learning, and outsourcing
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,58 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2024 (11) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |