A Great Leap Forward; 1930s Depression and U.S. Economic Growth

by Alexander J. Field

• ISBN13: 9780300151091
• ISBN10: 0300151098
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2012-04-26
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

This thoughtful re-examination of the history of U.S. economic growth is built around a novel claim, that potential output grew dramatically across the Depression years (1929-1941) and that this advance provided the foundation for the economic and military success of the United States during the Second World War as well as for the golden age (1948-1973) that followed. Alexander J. Field takes a fresh look at growth data and concludes that, behind a backdrop of double-digit unemployment, the 1930s actually experienced very high rates of technological and organizational innovation, fueled by the maturing of a privately funded research and development system and the government-funded build-out of the country's surface road infrastructure. This substantive new volume in the Yale Series in Economic and Financial History invites renewed discussions on productivity growth over the last century and a half and on our current prospects.

Author Biography

Alexander J. Field is the Michel and Mary Orradre Professor of Economics, Santa Clara University, and executive director of the Economic History Association. He lives in Palo Alto, CA.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
A New Growth Narrative
The Most Technologically Progressive Decade of the Century	p. 19
The Interwar Years	p. 42
The Second World War	p. 79
The Golden Age and Beyond	p. 106
The Information Technology Boom	p. 121
Fin de Siècle: The Late Nineteenth Century in the Mirror of the Twentieth	p. 146
Extensions and Reflections
Procyclical TFP	p. 169
The Equipment Hypothesis	p. 192
General-Purpose Technologies	p. 206
Historical Perspectives On 2007-2010
Financial Fragility and Recovery	p. 231
Uncontrolled Land Development and the Duration of the Depression	p. 277
Do Economic Downturns Have a Silver Lining?	p. 294
Epilogue	p. 312
Appendix. A Brief Description of Growth Accounting Methods	p. 315
Notes	p. 309
Bibliography	p. 351
Index	p. 371
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